Chao in Space
by ATP Ace
Summary: Nikki the Chao lives an ordinary life in Chao World, playing with friends and excelling in school. Meanwhile, the dark chao nation of Skulblakia is rising with power that could allow them to pursue global conquest. Nikki finds himself in the middle of this story as it unfolds and discovers that he is the only one who can stop Skulblakia and save the world. Or... is he?
1. Chao School

**1**

**Chao School**

"It's Playtime!" announced the teacher chao to her class.

The teacher chao, who was called Miss Chaolin, was a neutral chaos chao, who was white with green eyes and blue fists and feet. The students loved Miss Chaolin, who would always give her class plenty of time to play, usually fifty-five to a hundred minutes a day. The chao students ran outside screaming and shouting, ready for another fun recess.

Nikki and his friends, Cassius and Caruso, ran onto the jungle gym. Cassius was a neutral power type, and Caruso was a dark swim type. Once the friends reached the top, they sat in their club spot. Their group, called the Jungle Capers, consisted of four chao. It was the smallest group at the school, but strategically the strongest. Nikki was a quick, nimble escape artist, Cassius was good at estimations and loved to bench press, sometimes up to five-hundred-fifty pounds, and Caruso was precise and could swim against any swift current. The fourth member, whose name was Papoose, a neutral fly type, was the smartest chao at the school, always getting perfect grades in every subject. The group would always meet up on the jungle gym, on the very top, to talk of 'business' matters. The group earned their name when early on in the school year they forcefully ousted another chao group that had used the jungle gym as their club spot. Now it belonged to the Jungle Capers.

"Where do you think Papoose is guys?" asked Cassius.

Nikki replied, "I saw him exit the classroom, but I haven't seen him since."

Caruso, looking through binoculars, said, "I see him!"

"Where?" asked Nikki.

"Over visiting the Wacky Wavers." replied Caruso

The Wacky Wavers were a nasty group of sixteen green neutral run type chao who were insolently rude to everyone who crossed their turf. They lived up to their name and loved to surf, doing flips and turns the whole time. School beach trips were often horridly unbearable because these chao always vied for attention and stole the spotlight. Sometimes fights would break out.

"Call him over here," requested Cassius.

"Papoose!" Caruso yelled.

Papoose looked up and ran over to the jungle gym. A member of the Wacky Wavers was following him, and he didn't look happy.

Cassius whispered alarmingly, "Start loading the water grenade cannons, we're going to need them!"

Nikki and Caruso immediately grabbed hold of long black barrels and hung them outside the gym. The green run type caught up to Papoose and violently kicked him in the hind quarters. Papoose did a mid-air flip and landed on his face. It made an unpleasant sound. All the Wacky Wavers laughed.

"Papoose's in trouble!" Nikki yelled.

Caruso and Nikki fired their cannons, which used water grenades, and both hit their mark: the Wacky Waver brute's face. He was launched back by the force of the aquatic explosion. Instantly after, the soaked chao stood up and gave his fifteen buddies a series of hand signals, which apparently meant 'battle stations!'

Later, the entire multitude of Wacky Wavers charged at the jungle gym, water guns in hand. Nikki, Caruso, Cassius and Papoose grabbed their cannons and began firing at the advancing run types. The leader of the Wacky Wavers, Wacky, who looked like all the others except bigger and with red patterns, possessed a rather large tank-looking vehicle that fired aqua-homing missiles at its target. Even though they were outnumbered, the Jungle Caper's cannons proved to be more effective than the Wacky Waver's water guns. Slowly, the amounts of run types were decreasing, as they either chickened out or were seriously injured by a water grenade. Eventually, Wacky, the leader with the tank, was the only one left. Suddenly, a water missile struck Nikki in the chest, and launched him right off the gym. Nikki yelped, and then landed flat on his face, and after stumbling a little, was back on his feet.

"Where did that buffoon get _homing_ water missiles?" Caruso asked in disgust.

Cassius shrugged. "You know what I'd like to know? Why doesn't Miss Chaolin ever notice that stupid tank driving across the playground in plain sight and get him in trouble?"

Caruso muttered incoherently.

Instead of climbing the stairs or ladder to where the cannons were, Nikki ran as fast as his legs could take him towards the incoming tank. He jumped and grabbed hold of the gun on the top. He climbed up, and even though Wacky was trying to shake him off, Nikki made it to the cockpit, broke the windshield, and pressed the 'self destruct' button. Nikki jumped off and ran behind a tree for cover. Suddenly, a nuclear-looking aquatic explosion gobbled up half the playground.

Nikki came out from behind the tree and looked at the huge puddle which had encased the playground. Stunned Wacky Wavers, scattered weapons, and water grenade carcasses were everywhere. Other chao who were unlucky enough to be in the vicinity were drenched and stunned. Nikki felt victorious when he looked at the mess. His group, the Jungle Capers, the smallest group in the school, had just defeated the meanest and most impertinent chao group, the Wacky Wavers!

"We did it!" Nikki yelled joyfully to his friends up on the jungle gym. "We held them back!"

Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose let out joyous cheers, and then got quiet when they noticed Wacky had become conscious and stood up.

He looked around at the drenched playground and his tattered army. Stomping his foot angrily, he yelled, "Retreat!"

His army immediately got up from the floor and ran back to their group spot.

Before Wacky turned and did the same, he eyed Nikki meaningfully, saying, "You haven't seen the last of me!"


	2. Graduation

**2**

**Graduation**

Three years later, Nikki, Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose were graduating from Chao School. Not just them, but the entire class! It was the night before the big day, and the Jungle Capers waited anxiously in their tree house, which was in Caruso's backyard. They couldn't sleep, so they were doing anything they could think of to pass the time away.

"Whatcha reading Papoose?" asked Nikki.

"The newspaper." he answered.

"What part?" asked Cassius.

"The part that shows what's going on in the world." replied Papoose. "It says here in the headlines that Skulblakia is gaining military strength."

"Really?" asked Caruso, surprised.

All four of the chao knew that Skulblakia was an island primarily run by dark chao, and that the hero chao from Emerald Hill Island were supposed to make sure Skulblakia didn't extend its borders. Emperor Zelbai, the leader of Skulblakia fifty-six years ago, started a huge war because he led his troops against the chao nations in order to take over. Since then, the hero chao were keeping an eye on the country to make sure it didn't rise in power again. Papoose's newspaper stated that Skulblakia was getting stronger, so either the hero chao had been slacking off, or the new leader of Skulblakia, named Emperor Ozimbus, had a devious plan to take over without any hero chao knowing until the last minute.

"I hope this newspaper gets spread to Emerald Hill Island." said Nikki.

"It doesn't." Papoose stated. "It's the Neutropolis Times, so it's Chao World only. I hope the hero chao find out Emperor Ozimbus might start another war, so they keep an eye on him. If he does plan to take over, and Emerald Hill Island still doesn't know about it, then we may be in for a dark chao takeover!"

"Emerald Hill Island really lives in the dark, doesn't it?" Caruso asked.

"I guess so," Cassius replied. "They're so peace-loving they never expect anything bad to happen. Ever. They think just because it's always sunshine-and-rainbows on Emerald Hill Island that they don't have to worry about anything going on outside their borders."

"Well that's stupid," Caruso blurted. "Whose idea was it to ask the ignorant peace-loving hero chao to watch over the jittery war-mongering dark chao with big weapons?"

"Hell if I know," Cassius muttered.

In the morning of the next day, the Jungle Capers and all the other chao groups gathered at the Chao School stage. Miss Chaolin, holding a basket of diplomas, walked up the stairs and to the front of the stage.

"Attention all chao! Welcome to the thirty-first annual Chao School graduation!" announced Miss Chaolin. "All of our students have worked hard, and they have been wonderful to me as a teacher! You and I should be very proud of them!"

At that, the crowd of parents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives cheered for their young graduates.

Miss Chaolin finished, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Presenting… your most adored little children, and the key to our future!"

As the crowd cheered, one by one, the chao groups advanced onto the stage. There were at least twenty chao groups in all, each one containing between four and twenty-five chao. Miss Chaolin gave each chao a diploma.

"Wow! School sure goes by fast, doesn't it?" proclaimed Nikki.

"It sure does," answered Caruso while taking his diploma.

"I feel so young! …But at the same time so _old_!" Cassius remarked.

The Jungle Capers looked back in dismay and disgust as they watched the Wacky Wavers receive their diplomas as well.

After receiving his diploma and a sympathy hug from Miss Chaolin, Wacky pranced up to Nikki and whispered in his ear, "Baby!"

Nikki was so mad at him that he could have started another water war right there, but remembering he was at his graduation, he held his ground.

Wacky then skipped up to Caruso and whispered, "Freak!"

Caruso stared Wacky in the eye without flinching.

Then Wacky span over to Papoose and whispered, "Geek!"

Papoose gave Wacky a slight frown.

Wacky waltzed to Cassius and whispered, "Wimp!"

Before Wacky could even grin, Cassius grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air.

Then he whispered in a threatening tone, "If you call me or my friends any hurtful names again, I'll make sure you'll wish you were never born!"

Cassius tossed Wacky on the ground. Wacky let out a tiny shriek and bolted back to his group of surfing morons.

All the chao in the audience were staring at Cassius, having seen him physically handle Wacky. They were holding their breath, completely silent.

Cassius looked around at all the chao, and then cleared his throat. "So, who wants ice cream?"

The chao in the audience cheered. There was nothing in the whole galaxy chao loved more than ice cream.

Later that day, there was a raffle. Everyone, students and relatives, participated. There were four prizes. First prize was a free trip to Emerald Hill Island, second prize was a deluxe cruise across the Great Reef, which was a beautiful reef just off the coast of Chao World, third prize was an all-you-can-eat nut frenzy, and fourth prize was a chao fruit. Miss Chaolin called off the names.

"Fourth prize goes to… Wacky!"

All of the chao cheered, except for the Jungle Capers of course.

Wacky received his chao fruit, and then he glared at the Jungle Capers and stuck his snout in the air, "Ha!"

Cassius gave him a slight snarl, and then Wacky jerked his head away from them and went back to his group.

Miss Chaolin continued the raffle. "Third prize goes to… CARUSO!"

All of the chao cheered, except for the Wacky Wavers of course. Caruso received a ticket for the nut frenzy, stuck his tongue out at Wacky, and went back to his group.

Miss Chaolin then announced, "Second prize goes to… MAGIC!"

All of the chao cheered. Magic, a hero run type, ran over to Miss Chaolin and received the cruise ticket. She spoke with an innocent voice. "Oh thank you! You don't know how much this means to me! This is life itself! Can I give a speech?"

"Well… yes, of course!" Chaolin gave the microphone to Magic. She cleared her throat and then assumed a serious facial expression. "Seven years ago, my poor parents finally saved up enough money to give me an education, and-"

"Ok time's up!" Chaolin announced cheerfully, shooing Magic off the stage. She fell into a pile of pots, making a loud clamorous noise upon landing. "Back to the raffle, which is far more important than any of these graduate's back-stories! Now, first prize goes to…" there was a long pause, and almost everyone held their breath. "NIKKI!"

All the chao cheered, except the Wacky Wavers, who walked away in disgust. Even Magic cheered for him by banging pots together.

"Congratulations Nikki! Good job Caruso!" said Papoose.

"When are you leaving for Emerald Hill Island Nikki?" asked Caruso.

"Well, I guess I'll leave in a week or so, but I want to stick around until Caruso has his all-you-can-eat nut frenzy!"

All four friends laughed at the comment.

Two weeks later, Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose were saying goodbye to Nikki at the airport.

"Don't forget to write!" exclaimed Caruso.

"Have a safe trip!" exclaimed Cassius.

"NIKKI!" exclaimed Papoose.

"What's the matter?" asked Nikki.

"I want you to take this with you," replied Papoose, handing him the newspaper article about Skulblakia.

"If you have a chance, show this to the hero chao you meet there okay?" asked Papoose. "Tell them they need to be smart and stop being so… you know, peaceful."

"Tell 'em to show Skulblakia some backbone," Cassius said, pounding his fist.

"I will," answered Nikki. The group said their final goodbyes, and then Nikki was walking onto the plane, approaching the first little spark that would eventually become the adventure of a lifetime. Soon, Nikki's plane departed from the airport and flew away, disappearing into the fluffy white clouds high above.

"I wonder what became of the Wacky Wavers?" asked Caruso, after Nikki's plane left.

"Well, there's one right behind us," Papoose replied nonchalantly.

Cassius immediately pulled out a tiny water gun, turned around, and squirted the infernal pest square in the eyes. The waver turned and ran as Cassius continued to squirt him in the hind quarters.

"You think we'll ever see Wacky again?" asked Cassius once the waver was out of range.

Papoose sighed. "If that was one of his spies following us, then we'll probably meet again."

Caruso's face scrunched. "Wait, _why_ did a Wacky Waver follow us to the airport several days after we graduated from Chao School and supposedly parted ways from them forever?"

"I… Don't… know…" Papoose replied wistfully.


	3. Emerald Hill Island

**3**

**Emerald Hill Island**

When Nikki's plane landed, it was late afternoon. It took him about two hours to reach the island, and Nikki was eager to see the majestic beauty of Emerald Hill Island, which he had heard so much about. When Nikki got off the plane, he could barely believe his eyes. He had never seen so many hero chao in one place before! The crowd in the airport he was observing was mostly made up of hero chao, some neutral chao, and no dark chao whatsoever.

_Seems discriminatory… I wonder if Caruso would be allowed to come here, being he's a dark chao and all, _thought Nikki.

As Nikki walked through the crowd, trying to find the exit to the airport, he realized he was hungry. He didn't know where to find the food court, so he decided to ask for directions. He looked around and spotted two hero chao sitting on a bench. These weren't just any hero chao though… these were _beautiful_ hero chao. One was a hero power type with blue patterns, and the other, small in size, was lime-green with huge purple wings, apparently a hero fly type. Nikki thought for a moment, and walked up to them.

As Nikki approached, he said, "Excuse me!"

The blue power type looked up and replied, "Yes?"

"Do you know where to find the food court?" asked Nikki.

"Go down the hall, turn left, and go down the other hall." replied the green fly type.

"Ok, thanks" said Nikki, and he began his trek down the hall.

Once at the food court, Nikki bought some food from his favorite fast food chain, the Chao Fruit Diner. It wasn't very healthy, but boy was it irresistible. As he sat down, he couldn't help but to think of what just had occurred.

_I wish they would have come with me here, or at least asked me to talk with them for a while, _thought Nikki. _I wonder if they ever talk to neutral chao? I mean, I should be pretty interesting to them. Why wouldn't they want to talk to me?_

Just then, he saw the two hero chao walk through the hall from where he came. They stood around for a few seconds, and then stood in line for the restaurant titled The Hero Fruit Company. Nikki struggled to hide a grotesque noise, signaling his extreme dislike for The Hero Fruit Company.

Nikki finished eating his food and, after one last peek at the beautiful hero chao, he left the court. After wandering around for an hour or so and denying he was lost, he followed the signs to the exit. Near it, he found a small gift shop. He went inside to buy a souvenir. Nikki found a small handgun, crafted out of state-of-the-art materials only found on Emerald Hill Island. Printed on the handle, were the words 'Never give up without a fight'. Nikki took the weapon to the cashier. "How much for this gun?"

"Just take it bro," the cashier, a hero normal type who looked half asleep, replied monotonously.

"You really mean it?" Nikki asked in disbelief.

"Yup… that dusty old gun's been sittin' in here for…" his eyes grew really large. "A whole century!" He paused to yawn and reposition himself. "No hero chao ever wants to buy crap like that. Might as well get rid of it, you know? Almost threw it away a few times cuz I was tired of starin' at it. You smell what I'm steppin' in?"

"Uh… yes," Nikki nodded slowly.

"Tubular… take it and go, I need a nap."

"Oh, sweet. Thanks." Nikki pocketed the weapon and exited the store.

"Take care bro," the cashier replied as Nikki left, shortly before planting his face on the desk and unleashing a hideous snore.

As he was approaching the exit, Nikki couldn't help but see, out of the corner of his eye, the two beautiful hero chao walking towards him.

When they reached him, the fly type waved, "Hello again! We just saw you in the gift shop and decided to come and talk with you."

"Oh, hi!" said Nikki awkwardly.

"What's your name?" asked the power type.

"Where are you from?" asked the fly type.

Nikki replied, "My name's Nikki, and I'm from Chao World. What are your names?"

The power type answered, "My name's Ailey, and my friend's name is Rupie."

_Wow! Ailey the power type, and Rupie the fly type! _Nikki thought.

"Where are you going?" asked Rupie.

"I… don't know, actually" admitted Nikki.

"What did you come to Emerald Hill Island for?" asked Ailey.

Nikki replied, "Well, I won this raffle back at Chao World, which gave me a free trip to Emerald Hill Island, and…" Nikki began to spazz. "OH MY GOODNESS! PAPOOSE'S NEWSPAPER ARTICLE!"

Rupie raised an eyebrow, "Is there something wrong?"

"I was asked by my friend Papoose to give a specific newspaper article to any hero chao I met, but I forgot until now," replied Nikki quickly. "Here, read this."

Nikki handed Ailey and Rupie the article. As they read it, their faces turned from full of suspense to fearful and dread-ridden.

Ailey gave Nikki back the article and said, "This is something you should take to our leader, King Scamper."

"Yeah, he'll know what to do!" exclaimed Rupie.

"Since you have nowhere to go, why don't you come spend the night at our house?" suggested Ailey.

Nikki was overjoyed. He was so happy he forgot to speak. _Girls in Chao World never do this to guys they just met! The innocence of hero chao continues to amaze me!_

Ailey said suddenly, "Nikki, we should get going now. The sooner we get to our house, the sooner we sleep, and the sooner we can talk to King Scamper about Skulblakia."

At the mention of the evil nation, the guard-chao guarding the exit turned their heads and glared at the trio of friends.

"We should be going now. It is too dangerous to spend any more time waiting." said Rupie.

_Nikki felt he was in a field. A vast, black field, dotted with many stars. Nikki felt as if he were in heaven. Then suddenly, the moon disappeared. Then, one by one, the stars disappeared. Nikki was afraid of what would happen next. Then everything went black, as the sun vanished._

_ When light came back to the strange place, it was not the sun, or the stars, producing light, but the moon. But it wasn't the moon he knew before. It was a cursed moon, purple with black features. Then Nikki saw IT. A gigantic space station, floating in place. It was black in color, with a strange symbol on the main body. It was a red 'S', inside a red circle, with three red lightning bolts sticking out, one on the top end of the circle, and the other two down on the sides. Nikki recognized this as the symbol of Skulblakia._

_ Suddenly, tiny black starships with red windows emerged from inside of it. At almost the same time, from the opposite direction, flew a squadron of what Nikki recognized was a Neutral Chao Protection Agency (NCPA) fleet of star-fighters. Several seconds later, the two sides opened fire, the bullets reflecting the cursed light of the dark moon. Then, everything just seemed to explode, as the space station suddenly charged at Nikki, as if it had a mind of its own, and when it hit him… BOOM!_

Nikki woke up screaming on a couch. It was about four o' clock in the morning. He thought for a moment, and then let out a sigh of relief as he realized what he had just witnessed was only a dream. Ailey entered the room, followed by Rupie.

Ailey asked, "What happened? Are you Ok?"

Nikki replied, "I'm fine, I just had a bad dream.

Rupie said, "Good. Now that you're awake, we can leave."

"Leave for what? Its four in the morning!" said Nikki, astonished

"The faster we get the news about Skulblakia to King Scamper, the better," replied Ailey

"Can't we just call him on the phone?" asked Nikki.

"Didn't you pay any attention to the news last night?" Rupie asked, astonished. "Our communication satellites were disrupted, we have to travel to Diamond City and talk to him face to face."

Nikki grumbled. "No, I didn't see the news because I fell asleep as soon as I got here, and… hey, wait. How could there be news last night if the comm. satellites were disrupted?"

"The 'breaking news' announcement was made one second before the TV shut off, duh," Rupie rolled her eyes.

Nikki sighed. "I'm too tired to care. Can we please leave at six or some other time?"

"And give Emperor Ozimbus two extra hours to conquer the world? No way!" said Rupie.

Ailey then pointed out, "Since the Palace is on the other side of the island on the outskirts of Diamond City, we won't get there until around nine if we leave now."

"Oh, ok, fine, whatever. We can leave now." said Nikki annoyed.

Four hours later, after an exceedingly boring trip that Nikki didn't enjoy at all save for the presence of Ailey and Rupie, the three heroes entered the capital city of Emerald Hill Island, Diamond City. Nikki looked around with awe, as many things in the city were made of diamond.

"Isn't it beautiful?" asked Rupie.

"It is the most beautiful city I've ever seen… even more beautiful than the cities I see in books!" Nikki replied with awe.

"Told you it was good to leave early!" bragged Ailey.

"That wouldn't have mattered unless someone planned on stealing all this stuff before we got here!" retorted Nikki. "In any case, I really do love it."

As they walked through the city towards the Palace, Nikki took the time to look around at the various stands on the sides of the road. Some were selling types of fruits and nuts he had never seen before, some were selling brightly colored linen, and some were selling trinkets and souvenirs that looked expensive but were probably a bunch of cheap knock-offs. Hero chao weren't known for mechanical ingenuity like neutral and dark chao were. Nikki also noticed how clear the sky was. It was bright blue with a few puffy cumulus clouds. The polluted skies of Chao World literally paled in comparison. He then looked around at the citizens of the city. They were all having a good time either buying goods from the stands, sitting on benches chatting and laughing, flying kites, or just strolling down the path.

Nikki then looked up at the sky again. This time it was clouded with birds. Most of the birds were bright and colorful. They were all flying in the same direction, squawking hysterically like they were panicking and trying to escape from something.

Nikki pointed up at the sky with glee. "Ailey, look at those birds! I've never seen anything like them! They're so colorful!"

Ailey looked up and stared for a moment at the birds. "That's odd… they're all flying in the same direction, squawking hysterically like they're panicking or trying to escape from something."

"Nonsense," Nikki chuckled. "What would be big enough to scare that many birds? A fire, maybe? But there's no smoke, so I think you're wrong."

Suddenly, when Ailey was about to reply, a loud, high pitched alarm sounded throughout the city. Ailey and Rupie's eyes widened with horror.

"OH NO! THE WAR ALARM!" screamed Rupie.

"What's happening?" asked Nikki, looking around confused. The other hero chao in the city were beginning to panic as well.

"There are huge watchtowers on the shores of this island that watch for danger," Ailey explained. "They have a set of different alarms for different occasions. This one's the war alarm, which goes off if the watchtowers detect any unauthorized military vehicles approaching the island!"

Right at that second, the once joyful city fell deathly silent as an ominous humming sound filled the air. Within seconds, the clear blue sky was overtaken by star-fighters. Some were flying high, some low. All of them were traveling in the same direction; the direction which the birds were flying. A few birds got struck by the fighters and fell to the ground dead. The only sounds that could be heard were the hum of the fighters' engines and the war alarm. The appearance of the fighters scared Nikki to death: they were black with red windows.

_Those are the fighters from my dream! They flew out of that space station and attacked the NCPA fleet! _Nikki thought with terror.

Almost in rhythm with the humming of the star-fighter's engine, screams and yells of terror from the panicked citizens were heard echoing throughout the city. Then, little white papers began to fall from the fleet of star-fighters. They tumbled to the ground in millions, as if it was snowing. Once the city was blanketed with the little white papers, the current of fighters stopped and their humming died off into the distance. The war alarm was still going off.

Ailey picked up a white paper, saying, "Well, if all those ships came to do was to drop messages, they could have at least gotten permission from King Scaa… oh, no!"

Ailey's jaw dropped, and if she weren't already white she would have been as pale as a ghost. Nikki and Rupie picked up a paper. It said:

ATTENTION CITIZENS OF EMERALD HILL ISLAND:

BY THE DIRECT ORDER OF EMPEROR OZIMBUS:

SURRENDER

OR WAR WILL BE DECLARED!


	4. Rise of Skulblakia

**4**

**Rise of Skulblakia**

Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie stared at the message with horror.

"Oh my…" whispered Rupie.

"We're too late." whispered Nikki, stunned.

The screams of terror began accumulating as more and more Diamond City citizens realized their danger.

A baby chao, who was too young to understand anything, picked up a paper and said curiously, "Mommy, what does this say?"

"It means we're going to die," the chao's mother replied.

"What do you mean?" asked the baby with huge eyes.

"It means we have to go eat as much ice cream as we can now, because we probably won't get another chance," answered the mother.

The trio of friends watched sadly as the panicked mother dragged her baby in the direction of the ice cream parlor.

Shortly after, Nikki noticed a crowd of panicked hero chao walking, running, or panicking towards a pathway which led up a small hill. On the top of the hill was a massive gold-diamond palace, which apparently belonged to King Scamper.

Nikki turned to Ailey and Rupie and asked, "Should we follow them?"

"I guess," replied Ailey. "It's not like something worse could happen."

The friends then began walking with the crowd towards King Scamper's palace.

Some time later, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie were standing within a gigantic crowd of chao in front of the Palace entrance. A hero chao guard walked onto a balcony above the main entrance. He was a hero power type who looked half-asleep and, unlike Ailey, was red instead of blue. He was followed by two hero swim types holding huge blow-horns made of giant ram's horns. The horn blowers stopped behind the guard and blew their horns. All the chao in the crowd silenced and stared at the balcony.

The guard announced, "Attention all chao! Your king approaches! Bow to his royal majesty… King Scamper!"

All the chao in the crowd except Nikki bowed as King Scamper entered the balcony. He was a hero chaos chao, yellow-gold in color. A hero chao guard who had entered the balcony behind Scamper shot Nikki with a taser bullet to force him to bow. When all the chao came up from bowing except Nikki because he was tased, King Scamper spoke.

"I know, as you do, that we, the citizens of Emerald Hill Island, are facing a crisis. It was completely expected that Ozimbus would choose a time like this to attack, when we were all having fun, and when our communication satellites are disrupted," said King Scamper. "I knew it was coming all along, because I'm the King and I see everything. But I didn't take Skulblakia seriously because they're dark chao and they threaten to take over every day. However, today they have backed their threats with action. The messages the fighters dropped gave us two choices: to surrender, or to face the wrath of the Skulblakian military. Before I select any two of these choices, I need your opinion."

"I say we get our torches and pitchforks and annihilate the army AND the little whippersnapper Ozimbus OURSELVES!" yelled a belligerent neutral power type.

"I think we should gather up a weapon supply… and THEN annihilate the army!" yelled a neutral swim type.

"I say we go conquer Skulblakia and show THEM what it's like!" yelled another belligerent neutral power type.

"Let's fart on 'em! Scare 'em off for good!" yelled a scruffy old hero normal type whose wrinkles were painful to look at.

"Calm down! Calm down!" yelled King Scamper. "I value each and every one of your opinions, and I say that so that you'll think I'm a nice king, but in all kingly honesty I made my decision before I even stepped foot outside the palace… we're going to surrender!"

The chao in the crowd were silent. Then slowly, with murmurs of disapproval, they filed down the hill to accept their fate, as what they thought, were Skulblakian subjects and slaves.

When the rest of the chao had left, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie were still there.

"Do you think he's giving up?" questioned Nikki.

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing," replied Rupie. "Didn't you hear him? He values our opinions, he's a good king."

"Hey! You there! Look here!" yelled the guard.

He was standing at the entrance of the Palace.

Nikki yelled back, "Are you talking to us?"

"Yes I am! The King wants to have a word with you. All three of you."

"Ok! Be right there!" yelled Rupie in reply.

As they walked towards the guard and the Palace, Ailey asked, "What would the king want with us?"

"I'm probably in trouble for not bowing," Nikki muttered.

"He wants to speak to you about the newspaper article and the rise of Skulblakia," replied the guard.

The guard escorted the three into the Palace. King Scamper was waiting in the main hall of the Palace.

"Hello there!" greeted King Scamper.

"Hello!" said the friends, while bowing. Nikki only bowed because a hero chao guard stood threateningly behind Scamper with a taser gun.

"I brought you here to discuss the upcoming events with Skulblakia" said King Scamper. "Guards, leave us"

"Yes your highness" replied the guards, and they walked out of the room.

"Why do you want to talk to us?" asked Rupie.

"We are no better than the other chao in the city," replied Ailey.

"Oh, but you are," replied King Scamper. "My guard, Cloudy, has been watching you for a while now."

"How is that possible?" asked Nikki.

"He was at the airport giving orders to the other guards there when he heard one of you mention Skulblakia," explained King Scamper. "He decided to keep an eye on you, and when he was hiding in the closet of your house, he came to the conclusion that the world desperately needs you," he pointed at Nikki. "He promptly came back and told me everything, and then I decided that I'd make you part of my plan to get rid of the foul nation. It smells like dark chao feet. Seriously, I've been there."

"Oh, Ok. I get it. I'm pretty awesome, aren't I?" announced Nikki, striking a pose.

Ailey and Rupie nodded simultaneously. "Very awesome."

"Now, here's the plan. You ready?" asked King Scamper.

"Yes!" replied all three.

"Ok, first we allow the dark chao to come here, and the guards and I will pretend we surrendered to Ozimbus," explained King Scamper. "Then, as soon as possible, you three sneak across Diamond City into the airport, and take an airplane. I'm sure Ozimbus's forces will try to stop you, so I'll send my guards to the airport to distract the dark chao as much as possible. Then you fly to Chao World, and find the NCPA military station. Tell my old friend, General Nimbus, about our situation, and then I'm sure he'll come to our rescue. I would call him myself, but since the comm. satellites are disrupted-"

"Wait." Nikki scrunched his eyebrows. "Why are we waiting for the dark chao to take over to start this plan? Shouldn't we try to escape now before they get here and maybe hopefully possibly get the NCPA's help before the dark chao arrive?"

"That's a stupid idea," Scamper said bluntly. "I'm the king so you have to do what I say."

"Yeah, I get it, but what will you do until General Nimbus gets here?" asked Ailey.

"I'll be hiding in my palace eating ice cream and playing Mahjong," Scamper nodded with contentment.

Suddenly, right after King Scamper finished speaking, the familiar hum of the Skulblakian star-fighters filled the air. Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie ran to the window. This particular window could see most of Diamond City, including the central plaza, the heart of the city. The fighters began circling like a gigantic cloud of hungry vultures. The screams of terrorized hero chao once again echoed throughout the city.

In the distance, a large space freighter made its way to Emerald Hill Island from the west. The freighter's main colors were black, red, and purple. It was long, bulky, and very massive. The freighter also had the red 'S' symbol painted on several places.

_ Just like the symbol in my dream, _thought Nikki. _I wouldn't be surprised if they had a space station too. That means I can say I called it when we find out for sure,_ Nikki grinned smugly.

The freighter was now close enough to the city to cast a death-like shadow over it. Then it slowed down and descended to the ground, landing on a flat plain about a half-mile from Diamond City. Once it was stable on the ground, a long ramp extended from the bottom of the freighter. Then, row after row of dark chao soldiers came marching out, accompanied by tanks, which were black in color, with the 'S' symbol on either side. There were at least thirty tanks present, along with an uncountable amount of every dark chao you could imagine, except for a dark chaos chao.

Two minutes later, the army reached the city. The citizens of the town, remembering Scamper said to surrender, stopped panicking, lined up on the side of the street, and tried to put on the most welcoming faces they could. The army paraded down the street towards the Palace. By this time, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie were down at the city lined up as well. Nikki paid close attention to the soldiers. He saw dark normal types carrying machine guns, dark run types carrying electric staffs, dark power types wielding gigantic maces which probably weighed a ton, dark swim types were driving the tanks, and since Nikki didn't see any dark fly types, he assumed they were driving the star-fighters.

The scruffy old hero normal type whose wrinkles were painful to look at was standing in front of the incoming dark chao. He beat his breast and snarled. "You can take my country! You can take my family! You can even take my dashingly attractive body! But you can never take my-"

A dark chao in the front of the parade shot him in the face, killing him in one blow. "Hideous creature, that one was."

Once the army reached the Palace, King Scamper, his guards, and the horn-blowing swim types greeted them. A dark swim type jumped out of the tank and walked to the King and his men.

He said, "Earlier today, the great Emperor Ozimbus sent you a message warning you we decided conquer Emerald Hill Island. On the message were two choices, which you hero chao probably noticed IF you're literate," the dark swim chuckled. "The choices were to surrender or be destroyed."

"Yes, we got your message, and yes we're literate," said King Scamper.

"So?" asked the dark swim. "Which one is it? Hurry up! The army can't wait all night!"

"We surrender," replied King Scamper

"To…?" asked the dark swim.

"Emperor Ozimbus, his great, royal, war-loving, cookie-ness," replied King Scamper with an annoyed sigh.

"Alright then! That makes things easier!" announced the dark swim.

He turned back to his army, pointed at a group of dark normal types, and demanded, "Tear down the Emerald Hill flag, destroy it, and replace it with the Skulblakian flag! Emerald Hill Island is now an official state of Skulblakia!"

Nikki, Ailey, Rupie, and the rest of the crowd watched with sadness as their pathetic flag was torn down, ripped to pieces and flushed down twenty separate toilets, and replaced with the Skulblakian flag of terror, which actually looked much more appealing than the previous flag.


	5. Escape

**5**

**Escape**

Four hours later, at about eleven o' clock at night, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie, who had hidden in the hills after the dark swim type dismissed the crowd, decided to come out of hiding. The dark swim was assigned governor of Emerald Hill Island by Emperor Ozimbus, or so he bragged to the crowd. Nikki thought the dark swim looked a lot like Caruso, except slightly bigger and a lot more annoying.

Once the three emerged from the hills into the clearing in front of the palace, they looked around carefully. There was a guard outside, but it was not one of King Scamper's guards. It was a big and buff dark power type, with a mace almost twice the size of its head.

Rupie asked frightened, "How do we get past THAT?"

At that moment, a taser bullet fired through the Palace window and struck the guard square in the haunches. It fell unconscious to the ground, the mace creating a dent in the ground big enough to fit Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie inside, with leftover room.

Nikki looked up where the dart came from, and watching them, like always, was Cloudy the guard.

"Thank you!" said Ailey, careful not to be too loud.

Cloudy saluted, and then ducked back inside the Palace.

The three ran as quickly and quietly as they could down the hill towards the city. The city was not deserted, however. It was patrolled by dark normal types with machine guns. There was at least one dark chao guarding each street.

"I say we go around the city," suggested Nikki.

"So do I" added Rupie.

"Back to the hills!" Ailey shouted.

Rupie punched Ailey. "SHHHH!"

Nikki rolled his eyes.

The friends made a detour into the hills. They didn't go too far in for fear of getting lost. They stayed close enough to the city to where they could see it. After a while, they made it to the airport. In front of them was a vast cement platform, about the length of a football field, which was guarded by watchtowers with monstrous spotlights.

"All we have to do is run across without touching the light," said Nikki.

Ailey complained, "I'm not too sure… seems too simple to me."

"You know what would be simple? Walking up to the door and knocking. That's simple. What we're about to do is…" Nikki looked both ways, "Ninja-status cool!"

Ailey gave Nikki a boring look. "Fine. If it makes you feel better."

Quietly and stealthily, like ninjas that were too cool for school, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie began running across the cement plain. They dodged and ducked, knowing that if they were caught, their mission would fail and the world would end instantly. Nikki made it across first, followed by Rupie, and then Ailey, who was a very slow runner and a bad ninja.

Rupie then began walking towards the door. She reached her hand for it…

"No No! Don't touch it!" whispered Nikki and Ailey as loudly as they could.

Too late. Rupie touched the door… and nothing happened. Nikki and Ailey sighed with relief. Then Rupie FLUNG open the door with great velocity… and nothing happened. Nikki was confused.

Nikki walked towards the door, "Usually, when entering an important place, there are sensors on the doors. That being said I don't know why-"

"Nikki! No!" whispered Ailey. Nikki looked back and at the same time, an intercom began wailing INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! ALL SYSTEMS ON DEFENSIVE FORMATION! INTRUDER ALERT!

Nikki glared at Ailey. "What did you do!?"

"It wasn't me, it was your foot."

Nikki looked down at his foot, which he noticed had stepped inside the building.

"Gah. Stupid foot." Nikki looked judgmentally at his foot.

"RUN!" yelled Ailey as she bolted inside.

Rupie and Nikki looked back at the cement platform. On the other side were three tanks and about fifty soldiers, charging towards them. Nikki and Rupie ran inside, following Ailey, just as lasers showered upon where they had just been.

Once Nikki caught up to Ailey, he asked, "Which plane do we take?"

"I don't know! We take whichever one we find first," replied Ailey in a panic.

The three turned a corner, and spotted a landing deck, titled Gate A. Gate A had no planes, just a full landing of star-fighters.

"Do we take one of those?" Rupie asked.

"No you imbecile! When we reach Chao World, the NCPA will think we're Skulblakian and shoot us down," Nikki pointed out.

"Then turn back! Next gate!" yelled Ailey, continuing to run.

The friends could hear the clamping of the soldiers and the roaring of the tanks approaching. They turned to Gate B, but when they reached the inside, they found it was also taken up by star-fighters. Nikki's heart was racing. He couldn't think of what to do. The friends then reached Gate C. This gate contained good news and bad news. The good news was there were actual airplanes here. The bad news was that the Skulblakian troops caught up to them.

Now they were in real trouble. Nikki thought hard about the situation. Then he remembered. _The handgun!_ Nikki began reaching for the handle in his bag, until the ground shook. A large hole had been blown out of a nearby wall. Cloudy jumped out of the hole, followed by five other hero power types. All six of the guards were equipped with laser pistols. Nikki, seeing the opportunity, immediately grabbed his gun and aimed it at a dark run type. Luckily for Nikki, it was already loaded. Call it beginner's luck. Nikki fired at the run type, and it fell to the ground dead and smoking. Nikki stared in amazement at what he had just done, as the first battle of the war broke out around him. He just killed someone! That may have also been beginner's luck, but Nikki was beginning to think he was a tad more epic than the average neutral normal type. Ailey and Rupie ran to a plane and scrambled inside. The tanks fired explosive tank bullets at the planes, blowing them up, trying to find the one Ailey and Rupie were inside of. The Skulblakian forces and Scamper's guards were locked in a classic hero vs. dark struggle. The Skulblakian forces outnumbered the guards fifteen to one, and since hero chao weren't very good fighters, Scamper's guards didn't last very long.

Nikki gained consciousness and fired more lasers at the soldiers. Nikki had a perfect aim, and struck down five more dark chao before Ailey and Rupie's plane began to move forward. The tanks, now realizing which plane to blow up, began to fire. Nikki dashed up to a tank. He jumped onto the long gun, and although the dark chao inside tried to shake him off, it was no good. Nikki broke into the windshield, and pressed the 'self destruct' button. Nikki ran behind the hole Cloudy made for cover. The dark swim type inside the tank screamed in agony, "Why do these things even HAVE self destruct buttons!?" Then the tank's fiery explosion engulfed the other two tanks and half of the Skulblakian forces, wiping them out.

"Why do tanks have such huge explosions?" Ailey asked, having seen the tank explode.

Rupie shrugged. "Probably the same reason they have windshields that can be broken by a neutral normal chao who never works out."

"Lame," Ailey muttered.

The plane then drove past Nikki, and he grabbed onto the still-open ramp. The plane exited Gate C, and was approaching the runway. Nikki watched with sadness as Cloudy the guard was surrounded and captured by the remaining dark chao soldiers. All the other guards had been killed. Nikki, with the help of Ailey, tumbled inside the plane and closed the ramp. It soon took off, and jumped into the air. They were soon over open water. When Nikki's nerves were just beginning to soften up, they tensed up some more as the plane's radar picked up fighters approaching from behind. Rupie, who was driving the plane, looked into the mirror and saw ten star-fighters coming in from behind, and catching up, too.

Rupie looked at the buttons closely. "Guys… I don't know how to fly a plane!"

Nikki approached Rupie and shoved her off the seat. "Let an expert handle it!"

He inspected the controls for a moment, during which time the fighters chasing them began bombarding them with lasers. Then Nikki triumphantly banged his fist on the control panel and proclaimed, "Hang on everyone! We're doing a loop!"

"A LOOP?" exclaimed Ailey.

"At a time like THIS?" added Rupie.

Nikki didn't even answer. He just pulled up on the throttle, and the plane did a complete loop, passing over the star-fighters in the process. Before the fighters had a chance to turn around, Nikki pressed a bright green button several times. The plane launched several green lasers towards the fighters, somehow wiping half of them out. A second wave of lasers left only two fighters. Nikki was about to fire more lasers, but decided against it when he saw a striped black and yellow button. He pressed it with a smirk, and the plane fired a missile towards one of the fighters. When it hit its mark and exploded, the explosion caught the last fighter's wing on fire, and it spiraled down into the ocean.

"Why are you so good at flying planes?" Ailey asked Nikki with wide eyes.

Nikki shrugged. "It's easy. Anyone can do it."

The three friends would soon reach Chao World, not knowing what adventures would await them there.


	6. Dark Alliance

**6**

**Dark Alliance**

Back at Chao World, Cassius was walking through a dense forest. He wasn't just strolling around though. He was running away, which was embarrassing for him since he was such a strong chao.

Cassius couldn't help but think about what had occurred in the previous day. The day after Nikki left for Emerald Hill Island, Skulblakian star-fighters appeared and dropped warning messages throughout Chao World. The aggressive king of Chao World, Kirtie, decided to tell Skulblakia to get off his lawn and declared war, which resulted in a battle on the streets of Neutropolis, the gigantic capital city of Chao World. The NCPA army and air force met the Skulblakian forces there. The battle lasted nine hours. There were tanks battling tanks, star-fighters battling star-fighters, and soldiers battling soldiers. There was no mixing of things battling things because that would have been unfair. Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose had no choice but to help out in the fight, so they took some weapons stranded on the floor from fallen soldiers. Caruso ended up with an electric staff, Papoose with a machine gun, and Cassius with a mace. They fought and struggled and many died, but in the end the Skulblakian forces captured King Kirtie, which ended the battle. The dark chao also carried away Caruso, Papoose, and dozens of NCPA soldiers. They were loaded into a space freighter and taken away, most likely to Skulblakia.

Cassius retreated from the battle once he saw it was impossible to save Caruso and Papoose, and he had been in the dense forest for almost a day now. Cassius could hear small rumbles of thunder in the distance, so he estimated a storm would hit in a half-hour. Cassius began to look for shelter. He needed to find a well-hidden area, one that wouldn't get struck by lightning, let rainwater in, or lead passing Skulblakian forces towards him.

Cassius had heard rumors wandering around the island since the dark chao takeover. One was that Emerald Hill Island possessed a death machine that was built to vaporize Skulblakia off the face of Mobius. Funny coincidence given hero chao hated violence. Another rumor was that Emperor Zelbai might reappear as a ghost and help Emperor Ozimbus win the war. Which would be bloody awesome for the Skulblakians. The last one Cassius heard was that Emperor Ozimbus himself was somewhere in Chao World, which was completely absurd. Cassius didn't pay any attention to these rumors because he believed they were all lies. All of them.

Cassius then heard footsteps on the leaf-covered ground. Since his hearing was so sharp, he concluded that they were about fifty feet from him. Cassius quietly approached a bush and hid inside. From in the bush he could see a cloaked figure walking down a path. The figure had a brown cloak with a hood covering its face. Suddenly, lightning flashed, and the face of the figure was momentarily revealed. Cassius almost laughed when he saw it was Wacky. Cassius couldn't figure out for the life of him why Wacky was wearing a cloak. He guessed Wacky was trying to hide from the Skulblakian army. But then again, a cloak was the most suspicious choice of clothing one could possibly wear. Regardless of Wacky's intentions, any chao from Skulblakia or otherwise would probably find him suspicious. Cassius stared at Wacky with intense judgment, and then resumed watching him.

Wacky slowly entered a clearing. On the other side of the clearing was an abandoned warehouse. It was about as big as an average house, but it was termite-infested and part of it was burned off. As if Wacky's cloak wasn't suspicious enough. As Cassius watched, he noticed it began to rain. Wacky stopped at the door to the old warehouse and knocked on the door. About five seconds later, another cloaked figure stepped out of the old building. At this figure's appearance, Cassius suddenly felt a surge of calamity and doom take over his body. Possibly because this figure's cloak was at least twice as suspicious-looking as Wacky's. This figure apparently had a deadly presence. The figure was weirdly huge, as he was nearly twice the size of Wacky. Although it could have easily been the cloak. That cloak was reeaallyy scary. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed by low-pitched thunder. The lightning revealed Wacky's face again, but instead of seeing the second figure's face, all he saw were two death-defying eyes and a smile so ghost-like it almost glowed in the dark. Cassius was afraid of this figure, not because he now knew it was a dark chao with eyes and a smile, but because it was wearing the scariest cloak he'd ever seen.

The figure pulled out a small brown sack tied with a gold rope. He tossed it around several times and said in a deep voice, "So… have you come for your reward?"

"No, sir. I've come for your cloak." Wacky replied. "Mine sucks. I want a cloak as epic as yours so I can make up for something else I don't have if you catch my drift."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that," the figure replied. "But here's a reward anyway."

Without hesitation, the figure gave Wacky the sack, which was apparently filled with coins.

"Wait here," said the dark figure.

"Can I use your restroom?"

"No."

The figure went inside the warehouse and returned a moment later with a long package.

"Take it," said the figure.

Wacky took the package and opened it. Inside was a long board, which looked identical to a snowboard, except it had an engine on the back, with rocket boosters sticking out of either side.

"Thank you sir" Wacky said, "but it sucks. All I really wanted was a scary cloak."

"Well then, if you don't like one hover board, then how about…"

The figure then turned and motioned towards the forest. Almost instantly, fifteen dark power types emerged from the forest and ran towards the two figures.

Cassius could tell Wacky struggled not to squeak or otherwise act afraid of the dark chao.

The dark figure whispered and hissed orders to the power types. The power types nodded affirmatively and stormed into the warehouse. They came back out each carrying a package identical to the first one with the hover board inside.

The figure then turned to Wacky and finished what he was saying before, "…a board for each member of your army. And here is a list of orders for you to carry out. Do them by next week and you will receive another reward."

"Will it be a cloak like yours?" Wacky asked.

"Never."

"Aw. How about a puppy?"

"I hate puppies."

"Aw. How about a chao fruit?"

"Overpriced."

"Aw. How about ice cream?"

"…Ice cream's good. Deal."

"Yes!" Wacky fist-pumped.

Wacky, followed by the power types, ran back in the direction from where he came. Cassius then took to watching the dark figure, who was standing as still as a statue. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed. That cloak was really, really scary. The figure then struck the ground with a tiny object, was surrounded in a cursed purple smoke, and was gone. Cassius figured that either the cloak gave the figure magic powers, or he used a smokescreen to get away unseen.

After thinking, Cassius came up with several conclusions:

Wacky was working for Skulblakia

The figure's cloak was the scariest thing he'd ever seen.

The warehouse was the safest place around to sleep during the storm.

Once Cassius entered the warehouse and found a place to sleep, he considered another thought. When he first saw the dark figure, a sense of calamity and doom overtook him. When the figure left, the calamity and doom left with it. Cassius concluded that whoever the figure was, he had a truly evil cloak.

**6**

**Dark Alliance**

Back at Chao World, Cassius was walking through a dense forest. He wasn't just strolling around though. He was running away, which was embarrassing for him since he was such a strong chao.

Cassius couldn't help but think about what had occurred in the previous day. The day after Nikki left for Emerald Hill Island, Skulblakian star-fighters appeared and dropped warning messages throughout Chao World. The aggressive king of Chao World, Kirtie, decided to tell Skulblakia to get off his lawn and declared war, which resulted in a battle on the streets of Neutropolis, the gigantic capital city of Chao World. The NCPA army and air force met the Skulblakian forces there. The battle lasted nine hours. There were tanks battling tanks, star-fighters battling star-fighters, and soldiers battling soldiers. There was no mixing of things battling things because that would have been unfair. Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose had no choice but to help out in the fight, so they took some weapons stranded on the floor from fallen soldiers. Caruso ended up with an electric staff, Papoose with a machine gun, and Cassius with a mace. They fought and struggled and many died, but in the end the Skulblakian forces captured King Kirtie, which ended the battle. The dark chao also carried away Caruso, Papoose, and dozens of NCPA soldiers. They were loaded into a space freighter and taken away, most likely to Skulblakia.

Cassius retreated from the battle once he saw it was impossible to save Caruso and Papoose, and he had been in the dense forest for almost a day now. Cassius could hear small rumbles of thunder in the distance, so he estimated a storm would hit in a half-hour. Cassius began to look for shelter. He needed to find a well-hidden area, one that wouldn't get struck by lightning, let rainwater in, or lead passing Skulblakian forces towards him.

Cassius had heard rumors wandering around the island since the dark chao takeover. One was that Emerald Hill Island possessed a death machine that was built to vaporize Skulblakia off the face of Mobius. Funny coincidence given hero chao hated violence. Another rumor was that Emperor Zelbai might reappear as a ghost and help Emperor Ozimbus win the war. Which would be bloody awesome for the Skulblakians. The last one Cassius heard was that Emperor Ozimbus himself was somewhere in Chao World, which was completely absurd. Cassius didn't pay any attention to these rumors because he believed they were all lies. All of them.

Cassius then heard footsteps on the leaf-covered ground. Since his hearing was so sharp, he concluded that they were about fifty feet from him. Cassius quietly approached a bush and hid inside. From in the bush he could see a cloaked figure walking down a path. The figure had a brown cloak with a hood covering its face. Suddenly, lightning flashed, and the face of the figure was momentarily revealed. Cassius almost laughed when he saw it was Wacky. Cassius couldn't figure out for the life of him why Wacky was wearing a cloak. He guessed Wacky was trying to hide from the Skulblakian army. But then again, a cloak was the most suspicious choice of clothing one could possibly wear. Regardless of Wacky's intentions, any chao from Skulblakia or otherwise would probably find him suspicious. Cassius stared at Wacky with intense judgment, and then resumed watching him.

Wacky slowly entered a clearing. On the other side of the clearing was an abandoned warehouse. It was about as big as an average house, but it was termite-infested and part of it was burned off. As if Wacky's cloak wasn't suspicious enough. As Cassius watched, he noticed it began to rain. Wacky stopped at the door to the old warehouse and knocked on the door. About five seconds later, another cloaked figure stepped out of the old building. At this figure's appearance, Cassius suddenly felt a surge of calamity and doom take over his body. Possibly because this figure's cloak was at least twice as suspicious-looking as Wacky's. This figure apparently had a deadly presence. The figure was weirdly huge, as he was nearly twice the size of Wacky. Although it could have easily been the cloak. That cloak was reeaallyy scary. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed by low-pitched thunder. The lightning revealed Wacky's face again, but instead of seeing the second figure's face, all he saw were two death-defying eyes and a smile so ghost-like it almost glowed in the dark. Cassius was afraid of this figure, not because he now knew it was a dark chao with eyes and a smile, but because it was wearing the scariest cloak he'd ever seen.

The figure pulled out a small brown sack tied with a gold rope. He tossed it around several times and said in a deep voice, "So… have you come for your reward?"

"No, sir. I've come for your cloak." Wacky replied. "Mine sucks. I want a cloak as epic as yours so I can make up for something else I don't have if you catch my drift."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that," the figure replied. "But here's a reward anyway."

Without hesitation, the figure gave Wacky the sack, which was apparently filled with coins.

"Wait here," said the dark figure.

"Can I use your restroom?"

"No."

The figure went inside the warehouse and returned a moment later with a long package.

"Take it," said the figure.

Wacky took the package and opened it. Inside was a long board, which looked identical to a snowboard, except it had an engine on the back, with rocket boosters sticking out of either side.

"Thank you sir" Wacky said, "but it sucks. All I really wanted was a scary cloak."

"Well then, if you don't like one hover board, then how about…"

The figure then turned and motioned towards the forest. Almost instantly, fifteen dark power types emerged from the forest and ran towards the two figures.

Cassius could tell Wacky struggled not to squeak or otherwise act afraid of the dark chao.

The dark figure whispered and hissed orders to the power types. The power types nodded affirmatively and stormed into the warehouse. They came back out each carrying a package identical to the first one with the hover board inside.

The figure then turned to Wacky and finished what he was saying before, "…a board for each member of your army. And here is a list of orders for you to carry out. Do them by next week and you will receive another reward."

"Will it be a cloak like yours?" Wacky asked.

"Never."

"Aw. How about a puppy?"

"I hate puppies."

"Aw. How about a chao fruit?"

"Overpriced."

"Aw. How about ice cream?"

"…Ice cream's good. Deal."

"Yes!" Wacky fist-pumped.

Wacky, followed by the power types, ran back in the direction from where he came. Cassius then took to watching the dark figure, who was standing as still as a statue. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed. That cloak was really, really scary. The figure then struck the ground with a tiny object, was surrounded in a cursed purple smoke, and was gone. Cassius figured that either the cloak gave the figure magic powers, or he used a smokescreen to get away unseen.

After thinking, Cassius came up with several conclusions:

1. Wacky was working for Skulblakia

2. The figure's cloak was the scariest thing he'd ever seen.

3. The warehouse was the safest place around to sleep during the storm.

Once Cassius entered the warehouse and found a place to sleep, he considered another thought. When he first saw the dark figure, a sense of calamity and doom overtook him. When the figure left, the calamity and doom left with it. Cassius concluded that whoever the figure was, he had a truly evil cloak.


	7. NCPA

**7**

**NCPA**

At sunrise, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie arrived at the Neutropolis Airport. When they got there, they were only slightly surprised that Skulblakia had conquered Chao World. It was all Scamper's fault for surrendering like a derp.

While on the plane, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie came up with a plan to evade dark chao trouble. First, Nikki painted himself black and his arms red. Ailey and Rupie found two sets of handcuffs, so they put them on. Nikki then tied the two handcuffed chao together, and pulled them on a rope like dogs. They were even forced to walk on all-fours, in spite of the handcuffs. Nikki put on his most dark chao-like face, which was pretty crappy, and exited the plane. When he was walking down the ramp, a dark run type stopped him.

"What's your business?" asked the run type.

"I have these two prisoners from Emerald Hill Island." Replied Nikki

"What crime did they commit?" asked the run type.

"I found them talking trash about Emperor Ozimbus," replied Nikki

"Where are you taking them?" asked the run type.

"To the Neutropolis Prison Hall," replied Nikki.

"Ok, you can pass," replied the run type.

Nikki, showing no emotion, continued through the airport until he exited. He searched for a nearby lake, which was conveniently right outside the front door of the airport, and jumped in to wash off the paint. When he got out, he freed Ailey and Rupie from the rope and handcuffs.

"Great imitation of a dark chao Nikki!" complimented Rupie.

"Yeah, that was pretty good!" added Ailey.

"Back when I was in school, I did a play, and my friend Caruso and I were the villains - dark chao," said Nikki.

"Oh I see what you did there!" A Skulblakian soldier who had been watching them the whole time replied. He began taking out a radio to call reinforcements.

"You didn't see anything!" Nikki shot him in the face and turned back to Ailey and Rupie. "Ok, what did King Scamper tell us we needed to do when we got here?" asked Rupie.

"We are supposed to find General Nimbus, and I know exactly where he is," replied Nikki.

"Where?" asked Ailey and Rupie simultaneously.

"He's at the NCPA military station several miles north of here," replied Nikki.

"How do you know the Skulblakians didn't get him?"

"Skulblakians can't even touch Nimbus. He's way too awesome."

"Are you two related?" Ailey asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. In spirit." Nikki pounded his chest with one fist.

"Wooooaahhh!" Ailey and Rupie's eyes glowed.

"Come along now, let's get to business!" Nikki walked in a random direction.

"Wow, it sure is a good thing you know your way around Chao World!" exclaimed Rupie.

"Well I wouldn't be here if you didn't know your way around Emerald Hill Island," Nikki commented.

The three friends began their journey north towards the NCPA military station. The station itself was a perfectly round battle station in the ocean made entirely out of the toughest steel in all Chao World, which was actually rather weak. It was the most northern point of Chao World, and was connected to the mainland by a half-mile long suspension bridge, which was heavily guarded by NCPA guards, soldiers, and tanks.

About an hour later, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie were several feet away from the bridge that connected the military station to Chao World. The base itself looked like a gigantic metal fortress with small runways and naval ship parking around it. It was hard to tell the station was circular. It appeared as though Skulblakia hadn't travelled this far north yet.

There were two neutral power types with blue police hats and rifles guarding the entrance to the bridge. Further down, there were more guards and a tank guarding the station's entrance.

Nikki walked up to one of the guards and said, "Hey! Buddy! How about letting us pass?"

"The guard, who's eyes were crossed and tongue sticking out, said, "Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu… nine pluth nine ith ninety-nine! Huh-her!

"What the…" said Nikki, confused.

The other guard turned and said, "Sorry, young travelers. He's the stupid one. If you have any questions, just ask me."

"Ok, then" said Nikki. "Could you be a friendly guard and let us pass please?"

"If I was a friendly guard I wouldn't be a guard at all. I'd lose my job." The guard stared blankly at the three chao.

"Please?" Rupie looked at him with a puppy-eyed expression.

"Why do you want to pass?" asked the guard.

"We need to see general Nimbus" replied Ailey.

"Huh-her! Jenrul Nimbith Huh-huh-her!" said the stupid guard.

"Why do you need to see General Nimbus?" asked the guard.

"We need to talk to him about…" Nikki looked around to see if anyone was listening. "…about the Skulblakian dark chao" finished Nikki.

"Huh-her! That-th why dark chaoth are thilly creechurth! Huh-ha-her!" said the stupid guard.

"Ok, you can pass, and here is a notice saying I let you pass," said the guard.

"What's it for?" asked Rupie.

"To help you pass the other guards up ahead," replied the guard.

"Ok, thanks!" said Nikki.

"Oh-Kay! thankth!" mimicked the stupid guard.

Nikki shot the stupid guard in the face and then the three friends began crossing the bridge. Five minutes later, they were at the entrance of the military station. Four guards and a tank stood in their way.

A guard asked, "Are you intruders or do you have a special reason to be here?"

"We're intruders!" Rupie screamed.

Ailey punched her.

"We have this," replied Nikki.

The guard took the passport and said, "You can pass."

"Thank you!" yelled Rupie.

The three chao then went around the tank and guards and found themselves in front of a huge fifteen-foot steel double-door. Nikki knocked on the door.

A voice behind the door asked, "Who is it?"

"I'm Nikki the Chao, and these are my friends Ailey and Rupie" replied Nikki.

"What do you want?" asked the voice.

"Nikki replied, "We need to see General Nimbus."

"Why?"

"We need to talk to him about…" Nikki looked around to see if anyone was listening. "…about the Skulblakian dark chao" finished Nikki.

"No," the voice said flatly.

"Please?" Rupie looked at a camera on the side of the door with a puppy-eyed expression.

"…Alright alright, you've convinced me. Come in," said the voice.

A few seconds later, the gigantic double door slowly opened, and Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie walked inside. The main hall of the military base was a huge room with two stories. At the far end was a huge 8ft squared TV with different views of security cameras around the base. Don't ask how it was able to work what with the comm. satellites being broken. There were hundreds of NCPA soldiers and workers walking to and fro from the dozens of doors on both floors of the room.

Nikki looked around and asked, "Who was at the door who just spoke to us?"

Ailey and Rupie shrugged.

"I'm over here," the door voice said.

Nikki and Rupie looked in the direction of the voice. Standing about five feet from them was a neutral run type. Nikki thought he resembled one of the Wacky Wavers, except this chao was blue, had five spikes in the back of the head instead of three, and it was slightly bigger. Additionally, it appeared to sparkle when the incandescent lights of the military station glanced off at a certain angle. He looked like a very powerful chao.

"Who are you?" asked Ailey.

The blue run type smiled and said in a calm sagely voice, "Why, I'm General Nimbus".

_Wow! General Nimbus! Now all we have to do is tell him about Emerald Hill Island and we can get rid of Skulblakia! _Nikki thought.

"It's nice to meet you General Nimbus!" said Rupie, and Nikki together.

Ailey fan-squealed.

"You don't have to call me General, Nimbus is fine."

"Ok, Nimbus!" said Nikki.

"Now, what is it that you wanted to see me about?" asked Nimbus.

"It's something we shouldn't talk about where others can hear," replied Nikki.

"That serious, hm? Ok, then. Follow me," said Nimbus.

Nimbus led Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie into a small sound-proof chamber. Nimbus sat down in a chair.

He then asked, "So, what is so important?"

Nikki replied, "We need to tell you something about Skulblakia."

"Really? That's it?" Nimbus looked disappointed.

"Yup," Nikki nodded.

"Skulblakia's all over the news… paper. It's hardly a secret now, I don't see why you went through all this trouble to have a private conversation with me."

"Well, I just wanted to spend time with you is all," Nikki said softly.

"Aw… that's so sweet…" Nimbus sparkled. "But no. I'm a business chao, and business chao do business only. Besides, Skulblakia is doomed. I'm sure King Scamper at Emerald Hill Island is going to declare war at any day now. It's practically impossible for a dark chao nation to overcome a nation of hero chao that never fight!"

Nikki looked at Nimbus with a sad frown on his face and said,

"Actually, Skulblakia _did_ overcome a nation of hero chao."

Nimbus, with a comical look on his face, said, "Totally saw that coming. Ha."

"King Scamper sent us to ask you for help" said Ailey.

Nimbus sat still for a moment thinking. Then he said, "Well, I guess I'll have to train you."

"For what?" asked Rupie.

Nimbus then smiled slyly and said, "To help my army and I defeat Skulblakia!"

"I don't need training!" Nikki asserted. "Did you see me fly that plane? It's easy. Anyone can do it."

"You're not going to fly a plane," Nimbus retorted. "We'll have you doing something far more dangerous, since you're so awesome."

"Woah. Like what?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're stupid."

"…Ah."


	8. Prepare for War

**8**

**Prepare for War**

The next day, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie were to get up at six o'clock, eat breakfast, and meet Nimbus at the Training Headquarters by seven fifteen. They did just that. They were there a minute early, too.

"Wow! You actually made it on time!" said Nimbus, amazed. "Usually, it takes new recruits over a week to get here on time!"

The three smiled at the compliment.

"Yeah I'm pretty awesome," Nikki replied.

"Ok. Do you have any weapons at all?" asked Nimbus.

Ailey and Rupie shook their heads, while Nikki pulled out his handgun. He gave it to Nimbus.

"Wow! 'Never give up without a fight!' What a nice saying to carve on a gun!" complimented Nimbus, reading the inscription on the handle. "How many lasers does it hold?"

"Thirty, I think."

Nimbus looked shocked. He said, "What? Thirty? That's it? You're going to need at least one thousand to survive a real battle!"

Nimbus pulled out a huge laser cartridge and gave it to Nikki.

"I was expecting something like this to happen, so I brought it with me," said Nimbus.

"Thank you!" said Nikki, as he took the tiny cartridge off his gun to replace it with the bigger one.

Nimbus then turned to Ailey and Rupie and said, "You don't have any weapons? Well, I was prepared for that too! Because I'm prepared for everything!"

Nimbus went to a bag sitting on the floor. He opened it, shuffled around some stuff, and came out with several weapons. He took them to Ailey and Rupie.

"Take your pick!" said Nimbus.

Ailey picked up and kept a radical-looking hook-shot, a device with a hook on the end, used to pull light nearby objects toward the user, or to pull the user towards a heavier object. Rupie picked up and kept a long, sturdy wooden staff.

"Is that what you want?" Nimbus asked.

"Yes," replied both Ailey and Rupie.

"Ok, then! Let's get started!" announced Nimbus.

Nimbus then began a long, hard, six-day training session for the three friends. On day one, Nimbus taught them how to use their weapons and how to do some basic moves. On day two, he taught them more advanced moves with their weapons. On the third day, Nimbus concentrated on target practice, with standing targets and slow-moving targets. On the fourth day, Nimbus added faster targets and flying targets. On the fifth day, Nimbus added larger stronger targets. On the sixth and final day, Nimbus took Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie to the Death Chamber, a room surrounded in twenty-five laser turrets, in which the goal was to survive the turrets for one minute. No one had ever reached this goal in all of NCPA history. There were ten turrets on the ground, ten on the ceiling, and five stuck to the wall. The challenge had to be completed with help from nothing and no one except a weapon of choice.

On Ailey's turn in the Death Chamber, she succeeded in dodging the turrets' lasers, using her hook-shot to pull herself to the walls to dodge, and she also stunned some turrets by hitting them with the hook-shot, because that totally worked.

On Rupie's turn in the Death Chamber, she only had to stay in for fifty-one seconds, because she destroyed the turrets. She bolted them with her staff if they were on the ground, and if they were on the wall or ceiling, she used her huge wings to fly up to them and crush them with her staff, because wooden staffs beat metal turrets every single time.

On Nikki's turn in the Death Chamber, he only had to stay in for twenty three seconds because he shot all of the turrets with his handgun. This was possible because the turrets had already been mangled by a wooden staff.

After everyone was done in the chamber, Nimbus congratulated them, saying, "Good job! All three of you! You all passed the test, one way or another! Now I think you're ready to join us on our trip."

"What trip?" asked Rupie.

"We're going hiking!" Nimbus exclaimed.

"Ooh, sounds nice. Where to?" Ailey asked.

"Across the sea! Then we'll defeat Skulblakia!"

"Oh, good! I miss my house on Emerald Hill Island!" said Ailey delighted.

"And I haven't finished my vacation there yet!" added Nikki.

Nimbus looked at Ailey and Nikki, smiling, and said, "We're not going to Emerald Hill Island."

"What?" exclaimed Ailey, astonished.

Nikki asked, "Then where exactly, are we going Nimbus?"

"Nimbus, still smiling, said, "We're going to the only place where we can finish this war, once and for all! Skulblakia!"

Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie looked at each other nervously, and then Nikki asked, "Don't you know how hard it is to get even in sight of that place? Especially while hiking across the sea?"

Nimbus replied, "Of course I do! I'm General Nimbus! Leader of the NCPA! I know everything and I'm always prepared! I've got the whole thing covered."

Ailey asked, annoyed, "We know you're the leader of the NCPA, but HOW are WE going to get to SKULBLAKIA?!"

Nimbus smiled again and said, "With two dozen naval warships and about a hundred or so star-fighters, of course!"

"That's it?" Ailey tilted her head.

Nimbus thought for a moment and then replied, "Oh, right! I almost forgot! We'll also need fifty thousand large knapsacks, canteens, and walking sticks. Those seas won't hike themselves!"


	9. Forest Fight

**9**

**Forest Fight**

Cassius woke up from his rest in the old warehouse. He guessed it was around eight o'clock in the morning because he was really good at estimating the time just like he was good at estimating how far away sounds were, and the storm clouds from the night before had vanished. He slowly and quietly exited the warehouse; he did not know if there were Skulblakian troops outside. Cassius, seeing there was no one around, began walking. He didn't know where exactly to go. He considered going to the NCPA military base to join the army, but he didn't know where it was, even though he spent his whole life living in Chao World and never cared to look close enough at a map to see that the ball at the top of Chao World's head was most definitely the NCPA military station. So he just decided to walk in a straight line until he found something he recognized.

At that moment, Cassius saw a bulletin board. It had a map and several wanted posters on it. He was happy he found the map, but a wanted poster caught his eye. It was a wanted poster that had a picture of him on it. The reward for Cassius's capture was one-thousand gold coins.

Next to his picture, was a picture of a hero power type with sleepy eyes. His name was Cloudy, or so it said on the poster. Cloudy's capture reward was five-thousand gold coins, but it was crossed off and said "ALREADY CAPTURED" over it in red ink.

Under Cloudy's picture were pictures of two rather beautiful hero chao. One was a hero power type with blue patterns and the other was a lime-green hero fly type. Their names appeared to be Ailey and Rupie. Both of their capture rewards were six-thousand gold coins.

The last poster was the one which surprised Cassius the most. It was a poster with Nikki's handsome mug on it.

_ I thought Nikki was safe on Emerald Hill Island! _thought Cassius.

Nikki's capture reward was one-hundred-thousand gold coins, and under that it said 'kill on sight.' Cassius concluded that Skulblakia must have conquered Emerald Hill Island, not just because of Nikki's poster, but from Cloudy, Ailey, and Rupie's posters as well.

Cassius then looked at the map. He found the location of the NCPA military station, and then began to trek north.

Three hours later, Cassius entered a gigantic clearing. From it, the capital city of Neutropolis was visible. Cassius began cautiously to cross the clearing. It didn't occur to him that he should stay in the forest and skirt the clearing because he was fiery-colored and would stick out like a whitehead pimple in the middle of the field. But in any case, he made it across unseen, or so he thought.

As Cassius walked through more forest, he noticed he heard a massive amount of crows squawking. He looked up, and he saw hundreds of panicked crows flying in the same direction – the opposite direction of Neutropolis. The crows were flying similar to the way the Skulblakian fighters flew when they dropped the messages. Cassius then began to notice that small rodents and reptiles were running in the same direction the crows were panicking. Cassius didn't know what was happening, so he decided to wait. He wasn't afraid of whatever could have been scaring those animals. Ordinary chao would run away, but Cassius? Never. He decided to wait.

Suddenly, a huge bulldozer crushed its way through the trees. It was black with the red Skulblakian symbol on it. The bulldozer had two mechanical arms. One, which had several chain saws attached to it, cut down trees in less than five seconds. The other arm had a huge metal claw which was used to pick up fallen trees and stuff them into the bulldozer's mouth-looking saw-filled treadmill. Cassius then hid behind a boulder, as the bulldozer drove past him, leaving a trail of bark shreds, crushed stumps, and tiny puddles of oil. Once the bulldozer was out of hearing range, Cassius got out of behind the boulder, looked sadly at what the bulldozer had done, and continued north.

A minute later, a gleaming red laser flew within inches of Cassius's head and careened into a tree. Cassius turned around, and saw a familiar face. It was a Wacky Waver.

Cassius looked at the run type, who was standing on a hover board, and said, "What do YOU want?"

The Waver pointed at Cassius and screamed, "Lieutenant! Lieutenant! I found the suspect!"

A second later, Wacky, riding a hover board, came out of the trees. "Cassius! Buddy! Long time no see!"

"Wacky! Why did you try to shoot me?" asked Cassius angrily.

"That's Lieutenant Wacky to you! I'm a bounty hunter for Skulblakia! I find criminals, capture them, take them to my boss, and get loads of money doing it!"

"Cool story bro, who exactly is your boss?" asked Cassius as patiently as he could.

"None of your beeswax!" snapped Wacky.

"Tell me or I'll wring your neck dry!" threatened Cassius.

"Ha, ha, HA!" laughed Wacky. "You're a strong chao, Cassius, but you're pathetic threats can't scare me anymore! You can't even touch me!"

"Want to bet on it?" asked Cassius angrily.

"Sure, sure! You got an army? Where are your pathetic Jungle Caper friends? I'll tell you! Geeky-face Papoose and crappy-nose Caruso are in jail, and bratty-cheeks Nikki is dead! You're the only one left, at least, not for long! Ha, ha, ha!

"I can defeat you and your pathetic friend there by MYSELF!" yelled Cassius, frustrated.

"I wouldn't count on it!" replied Wacky, smiling.

Wacky then blew a tiny, high-pitched whistle. Several seconds later, the Wacky Wavers assembled; all sixteen of them. They all were riding hover boards and were armed with laser pistols. Cassius had nothing.

Wacky then pointed and yelled loudly, "Fire!"

The Wacky Wavers fired at Cassius. He ducked and dodged as he thought up of a plan. He was a good multitasker. Then, Cassius bolted into a denser part of the forest.

Wacky demanded, "Follow him!"

The Wacky Wavers charged after him on their hover boards. It wasn't long before one of the wavers crashed head-on into a tree. The surfers clearly weren't accustomed to hover boards yet. Cassius, expecting this to happen because he's a boss, grabbed the fallen run type's pistol and began firing at them. He had to dodge still because he was being fired upon. Cassius shot a waver right off his board, not damaging it. Cassius ran over to the board, got on, and charged on through the forest, because he totally knew how to drive a hover board.

Wacky yelled frustrated, "Attack! Get him!"

The Wacky Wavers chased after Cassius. His main plan was to run most of the wavers into trees. It was working, and Cassius also succeeded in shooting down two more run types while he fled. But this carnage was short-lived because all of a sudden, the engine of Cassius's board seemed to come off all by itself. He noticed a purple slime where the engine used to be. Not long after that, Cassius and the board crashed to the ground. The board, bouncing on the ground, hit Wacky's board by pure coincidence. Wacky went spinning out of control, until his engine exploded, and he went flying through the air, screaming. The rest of the wavers retreated, which was notably stupid of them since Cassius was now on the ground defenseless and they could have easily finished him off.

Cassius checked to make sure he didn't have any broken bones or other serious injuries, and he spotted a small burn on his arm. It didn't hurt, so he ignored it. Cassius noticed he felt the same sense of doom that overcame him when he saw the cloaked figure the night before. He then spotted more purple slime on the ground. It was eating away at the dead leaves on the ground. Cassius soon noticed there was a trail of slime, all leading up to the same figure he saw Wacky with the night before. The cloak was far more scary-looking now that he could see it clearly in the shaded daylight.

The figure said, "Welcome to my store."

Cassius replied, "Who are you and what do you want?"

"There are many surprises within my store," said the figure.

"I'll only go with you if you tell me who you are," replied Cassius.

"You pay this much," the figure replied.

"OF COURSE I DO!" yelled Cassius.

"No, that's too low," the figure replied.

"DUH! You bet your mamma's wedding ring it's too low!" yelled Cassius, reaching to grab the figure's cloak.

The figure smacked Cassius' hand. "PUT THAT DOWN! You don't have enough scarabs!"

At that moment, Cassius noticed he was being observed by dozens of dark chao of every type.

The figure loomed over Cassius. "Do you want to know who I am?"

Cassius nodded slowly.

The figure said, "Ok I'll sell it to you!"

Cassius was suddenly paralyzed with fear. He couldn't believe his eyes. Under the scary brown cloak was the biggest, meanest, strongest dark fly type he'd ever seen in his life. It had piercing blue and white eyes, a ghostly smile, and was entirely black, except for patterns on the ear-like spikes, arms, and legs. The figure also had a gold crown on his head with seven spikes, with a red and purple gem in each spike. Cassius then knew he was looking directly into the eyes of the dreaded leader of Skulblakia… Emperor Ozimbus. Whose hideosity was only exponentially multiplied given he was wearing a satanically suspicious cloak and just mimicked the most annoying shopkeeper known to every sentient creature in every dimension of every time period currently existing. The sheer logic of it all rendered Cassius too stunned to move as he was ruthlessly beaten and captured by Ozimbus's army, loaded into a space freighter, and taken to Skulblakia.


	10. War at Sea

**10**

**War at Sea**

The next day, Nikki woke up annoyingly by the sound of a wake up call. Ailey, Rupie, and the NCPA soldiers woke up from it as well. Nikki was told the night before that the call would go off at four thirty, giving everyone enough time to eat breakfast, gather their weapons, and board one of the twenty-four NCPA naval warships by six o' clock. Each warship was a grayish color, had a landing platform for NCPA star-fighters, four powerful laser turrets, and torpedo launchers under the ship's hull where no one could see them. One could only hope the meager four turrets weren't susceptible to assault via wooden staff like the ones in the Death Chamber.

Some time later, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie boarded a warship. They boarded the one in which General Nimbus boarded because they were stalking him. Once inside, Nimbus stopped Nikki.

He said, "I have a request for you Nikki."

"What is it?" asked Nikki.

Nimbus pulled out a broadsword case and then said, "I need you to teach me how to fight with broadswords."

"But I don't know how to fight with broadswords," Nikki replied.

Nimbus raised an eyebrow, and then gasped. "Oh, sorry! I meant, I need to teach you how to fight with broadswords."

"Why?" asked Nikki.

Nimbus replied, "They are Ozimbus's favorite weapon, and I fear, since he is after you, you will have to face him."

"Why can't I just shoot him with my handgun?" asked Nikki. "I've killed scores of dark chao with it already. And did you see me in the Death Chamber? I killed twenty-five turrets in twenty-three seconds. By myself. I am so bloody awesome."

"Ozimbus is skilled with both his weapon and magic." Nimbus explained. "He can deflect laser bullets either with his swords, his scary cloak, or his evil powers."

"Ok, you can teach me" said Nikki, sounding very disturbed.

After the warships began moving, while Rupie and Ailey were off making friends with the soldiers no implicit message intended, Nimbus taught the basic sword moves to Nikki. Then he taught him how to attack, and then how to defend. By the time that was over, it was early afternoon, and Chao World was out of sight. They were over open ocean.

Nimbus then grabbed his bag. He looked through it, and took out four wooden sticks, about the length and weight of the swords. He gave a pair of sticks to Nikki and said, "Defend yourself!"

Nimbus then span at Nikki and attempted to hit him on the arm with his sparkly lightning powers. Nikki deflected the blow. A random guard got hit by the lightning and fell off the ship. Nikki then attempted a slash at Nimbus's leg, and missed. Nimbus, after jumping back from Nikki's attack, gave a powerful swing towards Nikki's body. Nimbus hit his mark. Nikki then, after recovering from the blow, stabbed at Nimbus. He hit him, and the force of the blow knocked the air out of Nimbus. Nikki took the opportunity to bolt Nimbus with an almighty bolt of lightning.

Nimbus healed himself and then said, "Enough! You are a talented fighter, Nikki. Either that or I need to kick the bucket, because we've only been practicing for two hours and you already beat me! You can take a break to eat, and then come back when you're ready for more training."

Another hour later, Nikki had fought Nimbus again, and beat him again. Of course. Nimbus, Rupie, Ailey, and the observing NCPA soldiers were surprised at how, after a few short battles, Nikki was able to beat up Nimbus so easily. Nimbus eventually concluded that Nikki was ready to fight Ozimbus. Although Nimbus had never confronted Ozimbus himself, he had nothing more to teach Nikki. He was too prideful to admit that the reason was because he was just a B-level broadsword fighter.

Soon after, the co-captain of the warship came to Nimbus. He was a neutral swim type. "We are forty-five minutes from Skulblakia, sir."

Nimbus replied, "Prepare the star-fighters and make sure the turrets and torpedo cannons are loaded. Get me my knapsack, walking stick, and canteen. This hike is about to get interesting."

"Yes sir!" replied the co-captain.

It wasn't long before a line of ominous black specs appeared on the horizon. There were about twenty of them.

"What are they?" asked Rupie.

Nimbus, looking trough binoculars, said, "They are Skulblakian warships. They, like their star-fighters, are black with red windows. They look like they are loaded with huge cannons. We'd better get ready for-"

Nimbus was cut off as a red flare erupted from one of the warships, shrieking as it went, and exploded like a firework.

Nimbus said alarmingly, "That was the attack signal! Prepare the turrets and load the star-fighters! They're coming in fast!"

"Why do they use a red flare as an attack signal?" Rupie asked. "It totally lets us know they're planning to attack. What a bunch of dummies."

"They're lame," Ailey agreed.

Ailey and Rupie dashed over to turrets, while Nikki, who was assigned 'warship protector', stayed right where he was. He was supposed to attack any dark chao that were to somehow get aboard the warship. Nikki thought the job sounded boring. He wanted to be out there, hiking the high seas with Nimbus by his side, flicking Skulblakian warships in the parts and watching them sink. 'Warship protector' was hardly a job fit for someone as epic as Nikki the Chao.

Suddenly, a black cloud rose from the Skulblakian warships. The cloud was advancing towards the NCPA, and through binoculars, Nimbus could tell the cloud was actually a fleet of star-fighters, which promptly began firing at the NCPA.

Nimbus said to his army, "Fire at will! Give them everything you've got!" The turrets on Nikki's warship, as well as the ones on the other NCPA warships, began firing rapidly at the star-fighters. Only a small number of star-fighters were shot down before they passed overhead and began to circle back, which makes perfect sense since the warships only had four turrets each. But by some miracle only two of the NCPA warships were sunk by the first assault. The fighters circled, and fired a second wave of lasers at the warships. A series of lasers almost hit Nikki, and the explosion sent him flying backward. When he got up, he began wondering if his position was a safe one.

Ailey and Rupie, in the same turret, fired at the star-fighters. Rupie was using the control throttle to rotate the turret, while Ailey took aim and fired. They, together, took down two star-fighters from the first wave. The second wave, they hit none.

Ailey said, excited, "This is actually fun, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, actually!" replied Rupie.

"It's too bad we don't have good aim like Nikki though," Ailey sighed.

"Yeah. We would have killed all the star-fighters on their first pass," Rupie agreed.

A few lasers hit their mark on the turret next to Ailey and Rupie's, and it exploded to pieces. Ailey then changed her mind and began wondering if her position was a safe one.

Nikki noticed, after the second wave left, that an NCPA star-fighter was left alone and un-used on a flight deck. Suddenly, Nikki didn't care what Nimbus, sparkly as he was, had to say. He completely disobeyed orders and dashed over to the fighter, just as the Skulblakian star-fighters took on a different formation and began relentlessly hammering the NCPA. The Skulblakian warships were almost in firing range from the NCPA warships, so Nikki concluded the battle was about to get crazy. He studied the controls of the fighter, turned it on, and sent it careening off the runway over the ocean.

Ailey was doing so well at her 'shooting star-fighters' job, that she didn't realize that she had another task soon to come. That instant, the laser cannons aboard the Skulblakian warships began to fire at the NCPA warships. A laser struck a damaged warship, the engine exploded, and it slowly sunk as the chao on board screamed hopelessly.

Ailey then told Rupie, "Turn the turret to the warships so I can fire at them and blow THEM up!"

Rupie replied with a nod and began to turn the turret.

After Nikki got used to the controls of the star-fighter, he began firing at the enemy fighters. He was doing well, quite naturally shooting down everything in his path, until he noticed there were several fighters chasing him, trying to shoot him down. He also noticed that the Skulblakian warships were firing at the NCPA, and the NCPA warships back at them. That wasn't very surprising though. Nikki thought it would have been funny if the Skulblakian warships were firing at the Skulblakians, and the NCPA warships at the NCPA. But he dismissed this psychotic notion and concentrated on reality. Both sides were losing warships little by little, but the Skulblakians looked like they would come up on top. Nikki then got an idea. The best idea he had gotten since the idea he told Scamper about before Skulblakia showed up. He, being followed by star-fighters, accelerated his fighter full speed ahead. He then charged straight towards two Skulblakian warships. At the last second, Nikki swerved his fighter to the side, in between the bulky warships. The Skulblakian fighters, instead of following Nikki to their all-too-obvious demise, flew up and over the warships to continue the pursuit. Nikki felt ashamed of himself for thinking he could defeat the Skulblakian star-fighters that easily. Then he turned his fighter back around towards the NCPA, and saw both sides engaged in a warship vs. warship battle.

Ailey and Rupie were firing at a Skulblakian warship passing by the NCPA warship they were aboard. Ailey concentrated on the engine of the ship, until one of the laser cannons fired at the NCPA, damaging the ship Ailey and Rupie were on. Ailey then concentrated on bullying that laser cannon. Once the dark chao inside the cannon noticed that he was being fired at, he began firing back at Ailey. The two turrets fired at each other, both sides being hit a few times. Ailey then fired a laser straight into the cockpit of the other cannon. The laser hit the dark chao inside, and that was the end of the road for him, and also his cannon, since it mourned the death of its driver by self-destructing. Ailey then took to firing at the engine again.

Nikki flew at a Skulblakian warship. He fired at it, but it did no good. He turned around, and fired again. This time, his lasers hit a weak spot in the hull of the ship. It began smoking, generated some electricity, exploded, and sank. Nikki watched with alarm and anger as he saw a torpedo, skimming through the transparent water, annihilate one of the NCPA warships. Nikki scrutinized the controls in his fighter for a missile button. He found it in a few seconds and launched a missile at the warship that fired the torpedo. The missile damaged the ship, but did not destroy it. Nikki then fired a wave of lasers at the torn up part of the ship, and it finally exploded.

Nikki was so involved in the destruction of the warships that he didn't see the star-fighters closing in on him. Before he knew it, his fighter was hit, and he went spiraling down to the ocean.

When the fighter landed it began to sink, so Nikki clambered out of the cockpit and into the water. As he swam towards an NCPA warship, he observed the battle around him. Both sides' star-fighters were shooting at each other and the opposite sides' warships, and both sides' warships were engaged side-by-side in a turret battle. Nikki was encouraged when he counted the warships. He saw that there were eleven of the twenty-four NCPA warships left, and that there were only eight of the twenty Skulblakian warships left. Never mind that over half of the NCPA warships and the chao on board would never be seen again. A Skulblakian warship then suddenly exploded, leaving only seven.

Nikki was also surprised to see Nimbus hiking across the sea, wearing a large knapsack and wielding a walking stick and canteen. A star-fighter tried to shoot him, but Nimbus used his canteen as a shield to deflect the laser back at the star-fighter and shoot it down. Then Nimbus approached the hull of an enemy warship and thwacked it with his walking stick. The hull tore in two and the ship sank like a boulder. Nimbus sparkled in the afternoon sunlight like a god fallen from the heavens. Nikki was in love.

Nikki boarded the warship, being narrowly missed by several stray lasers in the process. He found he was on the same ship he started on. He saw Rupie and Ailey inside a turret battling against another warship's turrets. Nikki pulled out his handgun, took aim, and shot the enemy turret several times, and it exploded. Nikki, being the only one who really knew the weakest spot on a Skulblakian warship, shot the hull several times, and it caught fire, and slowly sank.

"That handgun sure is boss," Ailey muttered.

"Sure is," Rupie agreed.

A green flare then projected from a Skulblakian warship. Slowly, the star-fighters and warships backed away from the NCPA navy and fleet, and began retreating in the direction of Emerald Hill Island. Nikki saw General Nimbus climb up onto the ship from the sea, still garbed in his hiking gear. He asked Nimbus, "Should we follow them?"

"No, we are headed to Skulblakia" answered Nimbus.

"What about Emerald Hill Island?" asked Nikki.

Nimbus, smiling, replied, "It's all about timing, Nikki. It's all about timing."

The co-captain of the warship then walked up to Nimbus. "Sir, Skulblakia has been sighted."

"Good. Prepare the remaining warships for landing."

"Yes sir!" said the co-captain, and he walked off.

Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie then looked off the bow of the warship and saw the dark silhouette of one of the Skulblakian Islands. Nikki, for the first time since he defeated the Wacky Wavers several years before, felt a proud feeling of triumph and victory. Because killing all those dark chao in the airport on Emerald Hill Island and wiping out the star-fighters on the subsequent plane flight wasn't nearly as satisfying as blowing up an aquatic tank in the middle of a playground by breaking into the windshield and pressing the self-destruct button. Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie thought they were nearing the end of their quest, but it turns out, their quest had just begun. The fact that they're only one-fourth of the way through the book and haven't even been to space yet is solid evidence that their quest had indeed just begun. They practically haven't even left Pallet Town.


	11. Prisoner

**11**

**Prisoner**

Cassius woke up on the floor. He was dizzy and had blurred vision for a while, so he couldn't tell where he was. After he gained his balance, he found he was in a metal room with one window. The walls were a dark shade of purple, and there was a door on the wall opposite of the window.

Cassius looked out the window and saw a blue sky, speedily passing clouds, and the ocean, which was at least a thousand feet below, because it's already been established that Cassius was good at estimating things like that. He concluded he was in a flying vessel of some sort.

Cassius slowly opened the door, which was weirdly unlocked, and peeked out. He saw Emperor Ozimbus, whose cloak still scared him, talking to two dark normal types.

Ozimbus said to the normal types, "Do what I say and take the prisoners to Skulblakia!"

One of the normal types said, "But your majesty! What about the space station? It's nearing completion, and I think we should take the prisoners there."

"That's a stupid idea," Ozimbus said bluntly. "I'm the king so you have to do what I say."

"But your majesty! The space station is such a work of art!" the normal type argued.

Ozimbus yelled in reply, "I don't care what you think of MY space station! I want those prisoners at the city of Zelbai in the prison hold! I'll give you further orders about the space station later!" With that, Ozimbus stormed off into another room.

One of the normal types said to the other, "Do you think Emperor Ozimbus is hiding something in his cloak?"

The other normal type replied, "He's got something planned, but I trust he'll tell us all in good time."

"How do you know?" the first normal type asked.

"Because Ozimbus is very loud and speaks everything that's on his mind."

The first normal type narrowed his eyes. "I could get you arrested for saying something like that."

"Uh…" the other normal type looked around awkwardly. "What were we talking about?"

"Chromatically-challenged ponies," the first replied.

"Great. Let's go beat up orphans in the cargo hold."

"Yes! My favorite pastime!"

The normal types left the room. Cassius thought about what he had just heard.

_Why wouldn't Ozimbus tell his own men what he was really hiding in his cloak? _thought Cassius.

Cassius then saw, through the slightly opened door, Wacky enter the room with a dark run type.

"I know you want to know Emperor Ozimbus's true plans, but I was told not to tell anyone," Wacky said smugly.

The run type replied, "But I want to know! I want to help!"

"Sorry, but his majesty doesn't want anyone to know." Wacky crossed his arms and looked away.

The run type then asked annoyed, "Then how did YOU find out?"

Wacky smiled. "Inside Ozimbus's throne room. I decided to venture inside before I was told to go to Chao World."

"What did you find?" asked the run type with wide eyes.

"None of your beeswax!" replied Wacky sternly.

The run type narrowed his eyes. "I could get you arrested for doing something like that."

"Ozimbus loves me, he'll never arrest me," Wacky boasted. "You, on the other hand, will be sent to the dungeon quicker than I can wipe my booty with your handkerchief."

"Oh dear…" the run type's eyes widened. "Well, can I at least have a hint?"

Wacky sighed and said, "Ok, I saw plans of attack near his throne. Something about an eclipse, and then there was something about the space station and then something about an indestructible evil monster, and then the writing is cut off. There. Happy now?"

The run type, with a confused look on his face, said, "I don't know what any of that stuff means, but thank you for telling me anyway."

Wacky then threatened, "If you tell anyone else about this I will have to throw you in with that Cassius freak!"

Cassius was offended by Wacky's last comment, but he didn't care. He just decided to think on several questions, like, where did the space station come from? Is the space station the cause of the comm. satellite problem? What did an eclipse have to do with anything? Why would anyone want an indestructible evil monster running around naked in the woods? Cassius confused himself with more and more questions until he fell asleep.

_Cassius felt he was in a field. A vast, green field covered in long grass. The wind was gentle on his face. Cassius, seeing no one was around to judge him, began to run around in the grass. He was having so much fun; he totally had no idea he was dreaming._

_ Suddenly, in the cloudless sky, the moon slowly approached the sun, preparing to overthrow it. As the moon got closer, the sun grew darker. When the moon reached the sun, the moon ate the sun and immediately bathed the field with a cursed purple light. Cassius was confused, but not scared. Nothing scared Cassius, ever. Except maybe Ozimbus' cloak._

_ Soon after that, Cassius saw the ocean. The ocean was black. Then the ocean began to take shape. It split into many parts, to form many different dark chao and Skulblakian weaponry. Before he knew it, Cassius was looking into a sea of dark chao, tanks, massive black panthers, and many other Skulblakian things which Cassius didn't recognize. _

_ Now Cassius was scared. He turned back to run, and when he did, the sight shocked him. He was face to face with the biggest wall of water he had ever seen. It was shaped like a wave. Several seconds later, the wave collapsed on Cassius, drowning him. The last thing he saw before his vision blurred was the most hideous creature he had ever seen, scarier even than Ozimbus' cloak._

Cassius woke up in a dark room. He was not in the flying vessel of some sort anymore, as far as he could tell. He saw water puddles on the cracked stone floor, and water was dropping from the ceiling into the puddles.

Through his blurred vision, he saw a group of chao. He saw twelve neutral normal types with weird hats on, a neutral fly type, a dark swim type, a neutral chaos chao, and a dark chaos chao. Cassius shook his head for clearer vision, and his jaw dropped. He was staring into the faces of Papoose, Caruso, and Miss Chaolin, the Chao School teacher! He didn't know who the neutral normal types or the dark chaos chao were, so he ignored them.

"Cassius! You're awake!" yelled Papoose, who ran up to greet him.

"I'm glad you're safe!" said Caruso, relieved.

"You're still the strong disciplined chao I knew in school!" complimented Miss Chaolin.

Cassius, relieved, said, "It's nice to see you all too! Do you have any idea where we are?"

Miss Chaolin replied, "We're at the Skulblakia prison hold."

"How did you of all chao get here, Miss Chaolin?" Cassius asked.

"What a good idea! Let's all share our stories of how we got here to Cassius!" exclaimed Miss Chaolin.

"That sounds depressing," Papoose muttered.

The dark chaos chao punched Papoose across the room. "We are sharing stories."

The others quickly nodded in agreement.

Miss Chaolin then began her story.

"I was doing some work at the school getting ready for the new school year shortly after your graduation, until I heard a knock on the door." Miss Chaolin paused and continued, "When I opened it, a dark power type gave me a message saying I was hired to help Emperor Ozimbus make wise decisions in the war. I laughed hysterically and refused, and the power type just left, without saying anything. The next day, I heard another knock on my door. I went to open it, and Ozimbus _himself _was standing there. First he asked me kindly to go to Skulblakia and help him, but when I giggled and refused, he pushed me and demanded me to accompany him in the war. He then sent in some dark normal types, had me captured, and here I am."

"That explains a lot," said Cassius. "Ozimbus must be really stupid if he went begging an elementary Chao School teacher to be his advisor in the war. Papoose, what about your story?"

Papoose, astonished, said, "You were there the whole time! Didn't you see me get captured?"

Cassius replied, "Actually, no, I didn't."

Papoose sighed and began his story.

"When I saw the Skulblakian fighters approaching for the takeover, I thought I was dreaming. And then King Kirtie decided to declare war on Skulblakia, which I thought was a bad idea. But anyway, the fighting started, and there was only one way to end it, and that was to stop Skulblakia, so I, along with you and Caruso, had no choice but to help the NCPA. So I picked up a machine gun, and began firing away. It was very easy to use and I killed a lot of chao. When I heard King Kirtie had been captured, that's when it happened. I was so shocked that we actually lost the battle, that I let a dark swim type take my gun load me into the freighter and take me away. That's right, I just handed the gun over to him and let him carry me into the freighter. That's how depressed I was that we lost the fight. Caruso did the same thing, so you don't need his story."

"Hey!" Caruso shouted. "My story's a bit different! I did all the same things you did, except I had an electric staff."

"Is that the only difference?" Cassius raised an eyebrow.

"Well… no. I killed a lot of chao just like Papoose. And then when we lost, I gave my weapon to a dark swim type and let him carry me into the freighter."

"Retards," Cassius rolled his eyes. "Now do any of you mind telling me who these other chao are?"

Miss Chaolin replied, "The neutral chao are NCPA soldiers, and the dark chaos chao here, well, we'll let him share his story.

"I don't share stories," replied the dark chaos chao.

"Yes you do," replied Cassius.

"You just punched me in the face to make me share mine, it's only fair!" Papoose shouted.

"Ok," said the dark chaos chao, beginning with his story.

"Hello, Cassius. My name is Fang. Back in the time of peace, when there was no war, I was Emperor Ozimbus's advisor." Fang almost seemed to choke over the words he said. He then continued, "He trusted me, and I trusted him. I thought we had a good friendship going, until something happened which made him suddenly power-thirsty. He then announced to the entire multitude of dark chao at Skulblakia that he was going to take over the other chao nations. I thought it was a horrible idea. I asked Ozimbus to stop, but he didn't listen. Then he made me in charge of the weapon supply. I refused. Ozimbus then gave me a second chance to help with the weapons. I still refused. He then demanded me to help with the weapons. I refused again, and he personally took me to this jail cell and tossed me in, and shut the door on me. I think shortly after was when he spread the warning messages and went to get Chaolin to replace me, but I'm not sure."

Cassius said, "That's an interesting story, but I've got one question. Why, since you are a chaos chao and all, didn't you just beat up Ozimbus and trash him with your mystical chaos chao powers?"

Fang replied with a disgusted expression, "Ozimbus is an evil magician with a really scary cloak. Even chaos chao are no match for him."

"Oh, yeah, the cloak… forgot about that," replied Cassius.

Everyone was silent after that, and resorted to depressingly moping around. Cassius moped too, but while thinking of ways to escape.


	12. Stealth Mode

**12**

**Stealth Mode**

_Nikki felt a sense of doom come over him. He felt something bad was about to happen. He found himself in the same field he was in before, the field which used to be dotted in stars, but was overtaken by the cursed moon. He saw the space station, the same station which collided into him last he saw it._

_ Suddenly, the station caught fire and began hurdling towards him. This time, Nikki moved out of the way. He watched, as the fiery station made its course to Mobius… and everything he knew disappeared…_

"Nikki wake up!" yelled Ailey.

Nikki woke up and slurred, "What's the hurry?"

"We're at Skulblakia," Rupie replied.

Nikki looked out of his window, and saw a dark jungle island. It was just after sunset, and the gigantic spotlights surrounding the island had just barely turned on. The NCPA warships were anchored about a mile from the island so they were not spotted.

Nikki asked, "How are we supposed to get over there without being torn to pieces first?"

Nimbus walked up and said, "While you were asleep, Ailey, Rupie, and I came up with a plan."

"I think now would be the time to tell me about it," Nikki said, annoyed.

Nimbus sparkled and said, "The plan is that you, Ailey, and Rupie get in the small boat we have stored up in the emergency room. You use the boat to go down that river over there, and be careful with the spotlights. Then, when you're about a mile down the river, you'll see a pathway which will lead to the Skulblakia prison hold. You get inside, free the imprisoned soldiers inside, and blow this whistle. When we at the warships hear you blow the whistle, we'll drive the warships into the bay, creating a diversion, while you, Ailey, Rupie, and the prisoners make your way to the pyramid city of Zelbai to confront and defeat Ozimbus."

"Sound pretty complicated, but if we don't get caught or mess up, it just might end the war!" said Nikki, excited and ready for action.

Several minutes later, Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie got into the small boat which was supposed to take them up the river.

Nimbus said, "Be sure you're not spotted until you get to the prison hold. Once you blow the whistle, the guards will hear it, so don't worry about being quiet after that. Just make a break for the city. But until then, you must remain in stealth mode."

"I am the night," Nikki replied flatly.

Nimbus then pulled out a bag and said, "I want you to take this with you."

Nikki looked inside the bag. It contained at least twenty handguns.

"What are these for?" asked Nikki.

Nimbus, smiling, said, "Those are for the prisoners. Don't you know the prison guards take your weapons away before they imprison you?"

"Oh, right," Nikki nodded.

"And don't forget this!" said Nimbus, handing Nikki the case containing the broadswords.

"Thank you!" said Nikki.

"And most importantly, your hiking gear." Nimbus gave Nikki a large knapsack, canteen, and walking stick.

"Thanks, I guess," Nikki muttered, stuffing all the junk he was just given into the knapsack and putting it on.

As the boat quickly and quietly sailed away, Nimbus waved goodbye, making a motion not to forget to blow the whistle.

The boat speedily made its way to the island towards the river. Rupie steered the boat to make sure it didn't charge into a spotlight while Nikki and Ailey told her when and where to turn. The boat narrowly missed a spotlight before entering the river. The boat had no trouble sailing up the river because there were no spotlights or guards along it. There were a few rocks and rapids in the way, but this boat was such a trooper that it just sailed right over them.

"Stealth mode is awesome," Ailey whispered.

"Shhh!" Nikki shushed her.

Once the group reached the path to the prison hold, they carefully got off and studied their surroundings. They could see the prison hold, a small jail house guarded by spotlights and dark power types.

Nikki said, "I've got a plan to get past those guards."

"What is it?" asked Rupie.

"We need black paint and handcuffs" announced Nikki.

"I don't have any," Ailey shrugged.

"Me neither," Rupie replied.

"I don't think I'd want to be dragged around like a dog again anyway. It's degrading," Ailey commented.

"Spoiled sports," Nikki sighed. Then he remembered his hiking gear and quickly donned the canteen and walking stick. Recalling Nimbus' graceful sea-hiking skills, he valiantly approached the prison hold, with Ailey and Rupie following close behind.

A dark power type noticed Nikki and said, "Stop! Who goes there?"

"It is I" replied Nikki.

"Who's I?" asked the power type.

"I is the ninth letter of the alphabet and a personal pronoun indicating the first person, typically the speaker of the word. It's also the third letter in 'pain,' the second letter in 'kill,' and the first letter in 'incinerate.'

The power type widened his eyes. "Wise sage… you may pass undisturbed." He bowed and stepped aside.

Nikki walked emotionlessly into the prison hold. Inside, was a stair case of about a hundred stairs. Nikki walked up the stairs to a gigantic locked door.

"Now what?" Ailey asked.

"I'll shoot it, duh," replied Nikki.

Nikki pulled out his handgun and fired at the door.

Cassius woke up from his long sleep. He still felt dizzy. The burn on his arm ached. The other chao in the jail cell were asleep. Cassius had woken up because he heard rash talking outside.

A voice said, "It is I."

"Who's I?" asked another voice.

"I is the ninth letter of the alphabet and a personal pronoun indicating the first person, typically the speaker of the word. It's also the third letter in 'pain,' the second letter in 'kill,' and the first letter in 'incinerate,'" the first voice said.

"Wise sage… you may pass undisturbed," the second voice replied.

Cassius was concerned about this chao who knew the alphabet a little too well for comfort. His voice sounded a tad familiar. Cassius woke the others up.

Caruso wiped some drool away, "What's the matter?"

"Someone's coming!" said Cassius. "And he knows his ABC's!"

Everyone gasped and listened as they heard footsteps coming up the stairs outside the door. Then, the footsteps stopped.

Suddenly, the sound of loud tiny explosions echoed through the prison. The door began smoking as the explosion sounds continued. Cassius also thought he could hear the sound of a gun firing. Soon after, the door practically exploded to pieces. On the other side, was what looked like a neutral normal type out for a hiking trip. He had two hero chao behind him, who Cassius recognized to be the two hero chao on the wanted poster.

Papoose stood up and proclaimed, "Who are you, mysterious hiker man!? What are you doing here? You smell like feet! Your stealth mode sucks! Your face is ugly and I never want to see it again! Not even for a million chao fruits!"

The hiker chao sighed and said, "Papoose, you're so stupid."

Papoose replied, "Then what are you?! How did you know my name?! Why does your voice sound familiar?!"

"I'm Nikki" replied Nikki.

"Impossible!" yelled Caruso. "Nikki'd never walk around in hiking gear like that!"

Nikki sighed and despawned the walking stick, canteen, and knapsack. Instantly, the chao in the prison, except for Fang and the dozen NCPA soldiers, recognized him.

"Nikki! How have you been? Where'd you get the hiking stuff? Who are the hero chao? What happened at Emerald Hill Island?", and the questions kept flying from Cassius, Caruso, Papoose, and Miss Chaolin. Nikki was also introduced to Fang and the NCPA soldiers. Nikki answered as many questions as he could until he remembered the whistle.

"Can I explain something to you?" asked Nikki.

"No thanks," Papoose replied.

Fang punched Papoose across the room. "Yes, please do explain."

Nikki explained, "Ok, everyone listen up. I was sent here by General Nimbus with my friends Ailey and Rupie to free you guys. But there is something I need you guys to do for me. I need you to help me charge towards the pyramid city of Zelbai so we can find Ozimbus, defeat him, and end the war."

"So… let me get this straight," Papoose said, rubbing his face where Fang punched him. "You're setting us free, just so we can charge to our imminent deaths at the pyramid city of Zelbai. You're stupid, Nikki. So very stupid."

"Papoose, you forget that I'm awesome," Nikki said sympathetically. "Don't you remember how I destroyed Wacky's tank by jumping on the cannon, breaking the windshield, and pressing the self destruct button? And let's not mention what happened to the turrets in the Death Chamber-"

"What happened to the turrets in the Death Chamber?" Caruso asked.

"Oh alright," Nikki cracked his neck and took a deep breath. "It was me and my handgun, versus twenty five angry turrets… the clock began. Twenty three seconds later, the clock stopped… because I had killed every last turret. With my gun. That being said, chao brethren, I need you to make a leap of faith. Trust in me, my awesomeness, my studly handgun I bought at an airport giftshop, and my hiking gear. We will invade the pyramid city of Zelbai, and we will CONQUER. We will WIN. And most importantly, we will… eat Ozimbus' ice cream."

All the chao were silent for a moment before replying.

"I guess we could try," replied Caruso.

"Ozimbus' cloak is scary," added Cassius.

"But his ice cream may just be worth the risk," Fang remarked.

"Miss Chaolin, do you agree with this plan?" asked Nikki.

Miss Chaolin replied, "I agree, and from now on, you can just call me Chaolin."

"Here are some weapons," said Nikki, as he handed out the handguns. "Are we ready to go?"

Everyone nodded in reply.

Nikki pulled out the whistle, took a deep breath, and blew a high-pitched squeak loud enough for the NCPA warships to hear.

Nimbus, on the warship, ordered his soldiers, "Raise the anchors! Prepare for an all-out attack on the bay!"


	13. Siege of Skulblakia

**13**

**Siege of Skulblakia**

Nikki yelled hurriedly to the other chao, "Go! Go!"

Nikki, Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, Caruso, Papoose, Fang, Chaolin, and the twelve NCPA soldiers charged out of the prison hold. When they exited, the dark power types who were guarding the entrance were waiting for them. The power types tried to look all tough until they realized they were outnumbered, so they dropped their maces and ran.

Cassius gave his gun to Nikki and walked over to a mace.

"Now here's a REAL weapon!" said Cassius, picking up the mace.

"Melee weapons are overrated," Papoose muttered.

The group of twenty kept running, as they heard an alarm boisterously sounding throughout the island. They ran into plenty of spotlights, but they didn't care, since the alarm was already sounded. Guards occasionally came at them and began to shoot, and the twenty heroes dodged and shot back without stopping their sprint for the city.

After Nimbus gave the command to start the warships, he directed them for a straight course towards the pyramid city of Zelbai, which was several miles into the back of the bay. Nimbus couldn't see it, so he concluded it was behind a hill from his point of view. Nimbus then heard the alarm go off.

He commanded his navy, "Prepare the turrets for battle! Make sure the torpedo launchers are loaded!"

A minute later, several tanks appeared at the shore of the bay. They were accompanied by dark normal types with machine guns. The tanks and normal types then began firing at Nimbus's warships. The NCPA turrets began firing back at them. It wasn't long before a tank hit its mark, and one of the NCPA warships caught fire and sank.

Nikki's small army was running down the narrow pathway which led to Zelbai. Nikki was pretty confident in himself and his mission, especially after seeing the power types flee like little babies, until he came across a clearing bordered on one side by the ocean and on the other side by a dense jungle. Nikki saw at least a dozen tanks and thousands of dark normal types come down the other side of the pathway. They were focused on something in the bay. Nikki and friends looked out on the ocean and saw Nimbus's seven remaining warships engaged in an all-out battle with the tanks and normal types.

_Nimbus is fine. He's a god, _thought Nikki with a nod.

Nikki and his friends fought their way through the incoming normal types, who were so busy laughing hysterically at Nikki's ragtag army that they forgot to annihilate them with their machine guns. The tanks didn't care to notice them because they were too busy firing at the NCPA warships. Nikki fired at normal type after normal type, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, Caruso, and eleven of the soldiers were just as successful. Chaolin and Fang were surrounded by dark normal types and being made fun of, Papoose tripped and was being relentlessly beaten, and one of the NCPA soldiers was shot in the chest and killed.

_This wasn't what we came here to do!_ Nikki thought with dismay.

He shot down some of the normal types surrounding Chaolin and Fang so they could get free, and Cassius slugged the normal types who were beating Papoose with one swing of his mace. Nikki blew his whistle to get everyone's attention, and then motioned towards the pathway. The normal types, whose attentions were also acquired by the whistle, now knew Nikki's plan but they didn't follow him because they figured he was as good as dead anyway. Nikki then ran up the path, followed by the rest of his small army.

Nimbus gave an order to speed up the warships towards the end of the bay, which would help prevent any tank bullet from hitting the ships. This worked because the ships were actually really fast. Nimbus could now see the ominous four-sided pyramid which made up the city of Zelbai. It was a super-sized pyramid-shaped city encased in a metal shielding. The shielding was ground colored with thread-like green stripes running horizontally through it. The shielding also had four gigantic horizontal oval-shaped red windows, one on each side of the pyramid, centered near the top. Being there was only one pyramid, Nimbus concluded that it had to be a pretty big one to fit an entire city inside of it.

Nimbus then spotted two Skulblakian warships heading straight towards the NCPA. Nimbus rolled his eyes and figured this wasn't going to be very hard, until he saw three torpedoes speeding through the shallow waters of the bay.

He ordered, "Fire the torpedoes at their torpedoes!"

At Nimbus's command, three torpedoes were fired at the other three, causing a huge explosion of water and fire.

"Fire two more torpedoes to sink those warships!" Nimbus commanded, trying to destroy the warships before they could fire any more torpedoes.

At Nimbus's command, two torpedoes were launched at the Skulblakian warships, and they, not knowing what hit them, exploded and sank.

Nimbus knew with satisfaction that his part of the mission was coming to an end. He could only hope Nikki and the others made it safely to the city.

Nikki and his army ran down the pathway until they came across a hill. The hill led straight up to the heavily guarded Zelbai, which had a gigantic drawbridge blocking the entrance. The group stared nervously at the sight.

Suddenly, a voice behind the group said, "Good job Cassie! You brought me an army to _play _with!"

Cassius, hurt by the insult, and the rest of the group turned and looked into the face of Wacky and the Wacky Wavers.

"Who's that?" asked Rupie

"Yeah, who are you?" asked Ailey.

"Are you good or bad?" asked Fang. "You can never tell with neutral chao."

Cassius turned to the three and said, "That's Wacky and his evil organization called the Wacky Wavers. They work as bounty hunters for Skulblakia."

"Wacky! How could you do such a thing?" exclaimed Papoose

"You're a neutral chao, not a dark chao!"

"Well I'm not a hero chao either," Wacky mocked in a baby voice. "I can do whatever I want. Neutral chao have BENEFITS."

Nikki and Caruso were just as surprised. They knew Wacky was mean, but they never suspected he was mean enough to join Skulblakia.

The former Jungle Capers stepped in front of the rest of the chao. Cassius noticed that the wavers he drove into trees the last he saw them were replaced with dark run types holding electric staffs.

Wacky jeered, "What a stupid army you have! I bet you can't beat my Wacky Wavers now! We have hover boards and YOU don't!"

Almost out of nowhere, Fang stepped in front of the Jungle Capers and yelled, "I could dismantle those things in seconds! Just you watch!"

Wacky almost fell off his board he was laughing so hard.

He said in an exaggerating high-pitched tone, "Oh, help me mommy! The baby chaos chao is going to hurt me with his rattle and baby bottle! Ha, ha, HA!"

At that moment, Fang marched up to Wacky's board and struck the engine with his fist. Wacky's board immediately fell to the ground, broken. Then Fang threw a massive punch at Wacky's head. Before Wacky could fall to the floor in pain, Fang picked him up, held him over his head, and tossed him down the hill. Wacky then rolled all the way down, until he collided with a boulder. Wacky then fell unconscious.

At the sight, the Wacky Wavers turned angrily at the group. By now, Papoose had a plan to get rid of them. He whispered the plan to Ailey, who nodded her head. She then pulled out her hook-shot and fired at the chain holding the drawbridge on the pyramid. It snapped on contact. The drawbridge fell on the Wacky Wavers, breaking all of their boards and trapping them under the bridge. They were too angry at the group for hurting Wacky to get out of the way in time. Five of the sixteen wavers were unconscious, and the rest were cursing and yelping because of their misfortune.

The guards around the city, who were watching this conflict, ran inside the pyramid to gather reinforcements.

Nikki, Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, Caruso, Papoose, Fang, Chaolin, and the eleven NCPA soldiers ran inside the city of Zelbai, ready for, what they thought, would be end the war.

Before entering, Nikki made sure he still had his broadswords, checked to see if his gun was loaded, and cautiously stepped inside the fortified city.


	14. Pyramid City

**14**

**Pyramid City**

It wasn't long before the dark normal types and tanks stopped firing at Nimbus's warships, lazily thinking the guards at the city would do that for them. Nimbus watched with confusion as the normal types and tanks withdrew from the battle, and slowly disappeared into the dense jungle behind them. Nimbus admired their stupidity, and he silently thanked the dark chao and tanks for making his trip to the pyramid a lot easier.

Once inside the city, the group of nineteen stared in awe at their surroundings. They were in a gigantic three-story room which was red in color. There were dozens of doors, but no windows. There was a large chandelier hooked on the ceiling.

"Where do we go?" asked Papoose.

"I say we follow the map," answered Caruso.

On one of the walls of the room was a map of the city.

"Figures," Nikki muttered. "It's like Ozimbus _wants _us to find him."

"Actually I think it's for the other dark chao," Papoose suggested. "Because dark chao are stupid and get lost when they don't have a map."

"Has it occurred to you that I'm a dark chao?" Caruso asked with an annoyed expression.

"You're not a dark chao Caruso. You're a hero chao at heart," Papoose replied.

"That's insulting," Caruso muttered.

"Hey!" Ailey slapped Caruso.

The group went up a staircase on the other side of the room and entered the door.

Inside the next room were more stairs. This was just a long hallway of what seemed like endless stairs. When the group climbed up the stairs, they noticed there were four dark power types guarding the door.

Papoose walked up to one of the power types and said, "Hey Mr. dark chao! Ozimbus would like to have a word with us. Can we pass?"

The power type didn't even move its eyes. Papoose tapped it on the head. It made a hollow sound.

Papoose, astonished, shouted, "These are plastic!" He then pushed the statue of the power type onto the floor. Its head fell off.

Rupie hit the second statue with her staff, and it shattered to bits.

Cassius thwacked the third statue with his mace. First it flew through the air from the force of the blow, and then it shattered on the wall.

Nikki, laughing with glee, shot the last statue's head with his gun. Its head exploded, and the rest of the statue fell to the ground.

Fang then jumped up and down on top of the plastic carcass, crushing it to more pieces, shouting "Chaos chao live for this stuff!"

"Who's stupid enough to put realistic-looking plastic guards in front of a door?" Nikki asked.

The eleven soldiers replied simultaneously, "Emperor Ozimbus is!"

The entire group erupted in laughter.

Nimbus landed his warships near the pyramid. He, along with some soldiers, got out of the warships. Nimbus led his soldiers towards the pyramid. At the bottom of the hill on which the pyramid sat, he saw an unconscious green run type.

He ran over to it and said, "Hey! You! Are you ok?"

The run type woke up and said, "My head hurts."

"What's your name?" asked Nimbus.

"Wacky," replied Wacky, while coughing.

"What happened?" asked Nimbus.

Wacky coughed and spoke dramatically, "I was playing with my friends until a dark chaos chao jumped out of the wilderness and attacked me!"

Nimbus gasped. "How sad! Do you know why it attacked you?"

Wacky coughed some more. "No, I just know that the chaos chao was black as midnight, fifty feet tall, had a smile so death like it was almost like staring at Emperor Ozimbus' cloak, and it was so strong, it could probably lift that pyramid over there!"

Nimbus, looking at the size of the city, said, "Wow! Nice story! Too bad it's BS."

Wacky's face turned red and he began to yell, "BS?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BS?! IT'S ALL TRUE!"

Nimbus sparkled and explained, "I know for a fact that chaos chao can't reach the size of fifty feet, they don't have wide smiles, and there is no such thing as a chaos chao strong enough to lift Zelbai. I'm afraid you don't have my sympathy and I'll have to arrest you on the charge that you're psychotic."

Wacky was infuriated. "That's impossible! I'm not psychotic! Sure I call people names and beat up baby chao and turn in prisoners to Emperor Ozimbus for a wad of ice cream but I'm definitely NOT psychotic!" His eye twitched.

Nimbus turned to the soldier beside him and whispered, "Tie him up with the jerks under the drawbridge and take them to my warship."

"No! No! Stop it!" screamed Wacky as he was being dragged away by the soldier. He then suddenly knocked the soldier to the ground, shook free from the handcuffs, killed the guard, and ran away as fast as his run-type legs could carry him. Nimbus sighed and decided it wasn't worth pursuing him.

After entering the door with the demolished plastic power types, Nikki's small army found themselves in a launch room. It was filled with cables, machines, and star-fighter landing platforms. In the very center of the room was a landed space freighter. It was connected to a loading platform. On one wall of the hangar there was huge steel door, which Nikki suspected led outside. There was a round circular pathway in the center of the room, and the freighter was in the center of it. On the other end of the room was a staircase and a door.

"Now what?" asked Ailey.

"We should call Nimbus and tell him Skulblakia has a landing base," suggested a NCPA soldier.

"Uh, no. The communication satellites are out, remember?"

The soldier, embarrassed, said, "Oh, yeah, right."

"Maybe we should look at this map" suggested Ailey.

On the wall next to them, was another map.

At that moment, an alarm sounded and a door on the side of the room opened. Out of the door came a swarm of dark run types and dark power types. Each of them were carrying laser pistols. Fat steel doors slowly descended from the tops of the doors behind the group and on the other end of the room.

"Nikki! Go through that door over there! It leads to the pinnacle of the pyramid, where Ozimbus is!" yelled Fang.

"What will you and the others do?" asked Nikki.

Papoose pushed Nikki towards the door slightly and said, "We'll distract the dark chao!"

Nikki then bolted towards the door at the other end of the room. He took out his hand gun and fired at a few soldiers while he was at it. The steel door was half-shut, and Nikki was halfway across the room. He rounded the loading platform by the freighter and dodged a couple lasers as he hurried towards the shutting door. Nikki did a front roll under the door and two seconds later, BAM! The door was completely shut. There was no going back. There was a staircase leading up to a dark abyss in front of him. Nikki held the hilt of his broadswords, and began apprehensively traveling up the stairs.

Nimbus, along with seven soldiers, entered the pyramid. It was quiet and empty.

Nimbus exaggerated, "Where is everybody? Not even a fly to greet us? What a shame!"

The soldiers quietly laughed at the comment.

Nimbus and the soldiers walked over to the door with the staircase. He entered it, and still no commotion. He was getting confused. He figured he should have seen at least one dark chao by then. He noticed more stairs. He walked up the seemingly endless stairs, wondering what had happened. Once he reached the top, he noticed plastic pieces of something littered all over the floor. He picked a piece up, and exploded with laughter when he saw it was a dark power type's face.

Nimbus, smiling, said to his soldiers, "Since when did Nikki obtain the power to turn power types into plastic?"

The soldiers caught on and began laughing hysterically.

Nimbus, suddenly serious, said, "Wait! I hear noise!"

The soldiers listened and picked up the sounds of shouting and gunfire on the other side of the door.

"Open the door," commanded Nimbus to the soldier closest to him.

"But sir, there's fighting on the other side!" the soldier argued.

Nimbus sparkled.

"…Gah! Ok I'll do it!" the soldier hurriedly opened the door. It didn't budge. Nimbus, of course, was prepared for something like this.

He looked at a soldier and asked, "Do you have those explosives I told you to bring with you?"

"Oh, I left that at home," replied the soldier.

Nimbus strangled and killed the soldier. Then he put on his hiking gear and took a stance. He thwacked the door with his walking stick and sent the door soaring through the air with great force. The flying door bolted a dark run type on the head, killing it. Nimbus and the seven soldiers looked straight into the eyes of a battle. It was inside a launch room with star-fighters and a space freighter parked inside. Dark chao were streaming through a door on the side of the room almost as if they were endless. Not far from the dark chao swarm were Ailey and Rupie. Nimbus also noticed they were with other chao he suspected were the prisoners. Nimbus then noticed Nikki wasn't there. He was concerned about Nikki's whereabouts, although he doubted he had been shot or killed because that could never happen to Nikki the Chao.

"Ailey! Rupie!" exclaimed Nimbus as he ran in their direction.

"Nimbus!" yelled the hero chao.

"Where's Nikki?" asked Nimbus.

Rupie replied, "He went…" Rupie gulped "To face Ozimbus"

Nimbus just stared at the floor. Ailey and Rupie wondered if he was ok.

Nimbus quietly said, "I don't think he's ready yet."

"But Nimbus! We came here for that purpose!" yelled Ailey, astonished.

"I still have a bad feeling about this," replied Nimbus. "Even though Nikki could beat me up with broadswords, there's a very slight chance that I'm… you know… just a B-level broadsword fighter…"

The three chao were silent with shame as the battle raged on around them. The question on their minds was if Nikki would even_ survive_ the battle with Ozimbus. No one in the room could predict what would happen next.


	15. Ozimbus

**15**

**Ozimbus**

Nikki reached the top of the staircase after what he felt was an hour or two, but it was only about five minutes. He took the time to study the gold door in front of him. It was a good fifteen feet tall and about twelve feet wide. It was made out of solid gold. Nikki then noticed the carvings on the door. There were long, snake-like dragons swirling up the sides, crocodiles on the lower half, and panthers on the top. Carved in the middle of the door and the bordering animals was a dark normal type with the Skulblakian crown perched on its head. Nikki guessed it was a carving of Emperor Zelbai.

Nikki slightly pushed the door until it was open a crack. When he did that, he felt a surge of calamity and doom take him like a wave. He nervously pushed the door open enough for him to fit and cautiously walked inside.

Nikki slowly made his way to the other side of the room. It was a long, skinny room filled with pillars. In the middle of the room in between the pillars was a long red carpet, which Nikki was currently walking on. On the other side of the room and carpet, was a gigantic shrine. The shrine was guarded by a massive wall of fire. The fire cast a red-orange glow on the whole room. Beyond the fire was a stone staircase, which lead up to a large gold-and-silver throne. A blurry dark figure, Ozimbus, was sitting in the throne. Nikki was afraid to look at Ozimbus because when he did he saw his cloak, and that caused him to feel the force of a mallet smashing his heart.

When he was about halfway across the room, Ozimbus said in a dark voice, "I've been waiting for you Nikki."

Nikki, astonished, said, "How do you know my name, and how could you have known I was coming?"

Ozimbus replied in a softer voice, "My top officials have brought me many complaints about you. You stole a plane from Diamond City, you tricked many of my guards by foolishly painting yourself black, you liberated my prison camp and set the wasted prisoners free, you brought Nimbus's pathetic army to try and fail to destroy my island, and you trapped many of the Wacky Wavers under the drawbridge. You are doing pretty well, for a wimp, but you can't keep this up forever, so I'll make a deal with you."

"Why would I want to make deals with YOU?" asked Nikki annoyed.

Ozimbus ignored him. "Your two choices are either to return home with the NCPA right now, accept I'm better than you, and nobody gets hurt, or you stay, I slaughter you, I massacre the NCPA, and I come up on top. Which one is it? If you take too long, I'll slaughter you anyway."

Nikki, without hesitation, said, "I won't quit! I'll never give up without a fight! Chao World needs me! I'm staying HERE!"

"Oh, are you now?" asked Ozimbus with a gleaming smile.

Ozimbus stood up in his chair and slammed the ground with a tiny pellet. Purple smoke engulfed him, and he disappeared. A second later, he reappeared ten feet away from Nikki, in front of the wall of fire. Nikki's jaw dropped. Now that the fire was out of the way, he could see Ozimbus's true form.

_That's the biggest, meanest, freakin' UGLIEST cloak I've ever seen in my life! _thought Nikki.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Ozimbus as he pulled out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Nikki tilted his head. "Wait. I thought you were going to fight with broadswords."

"Who said anything about broadswords?"

"Nimbus said they were your favorite weapon."

"They were my favorite weapon yesterday, but today my favorite weapon is the rocket-propelled grenade launcher. I'm about to use it to destroy you."

"Damn it," Nikki kicked at the ground. "I totally brought my own broadswords. I was really hoping we'd have a good broadsword fight, because otherwise I could just kill you with my handgun like I've killed hundreds of other dark chao. That'd be no fun."

"You're absolutely right," Ozimbus nodded. "Sorry about that. It's all just a huge misunderstanding. I promise we'll have a great broadsword fight, just for you." He put away the rocket-propelled grenade launcher and took out broadswords.

"Thanks Ozimbus, you're the best," Nikki smiled.

"Anytime," Ozimbus winked.

Ozimbus's broadswords were twice the length of Nikki's, but Nikki pulled his out and braced himself to fight. Ozimbus just kept standing in place, staring with evil eyes. Nikki began to wonder if he was frozen.

Suddenly, Ozimbus jumped high in the air and prepared to stab Nikki in the head. Nikki rolled out of the way and Ozimbus crashed to the floor. Taking advantage, Nikki raised his sword to strike, but Ozimbus blocked him. Nikki started slashing at Ozimbus madly, keeping Chao World's fate in his mind. Ozimbus blocked every blow with such flexibility and agility it almost seemed like a living ninja movie. Nikki began to get frustrated. He went in for the stab, and was blocked by Ozimbus. He went for the head, and was blocked by Ozimbus. He went for the legs, and was blocked by Ozimbus. He tried to knock one of the swords out of his hands, but once again, was blocked by Ozimbus. Nikki was getting tired. He looked Ozimbus in the eyes. Ozimbus looked lively and full of energy, but what made Nikki really mad was that he was smiling. Not just that, he was _laughing!_

_He's PLAYING with me! _realized Nikki in disbelief.

Ozimbus was already hard enough to beat, and he was only playing! Nikki began to wonder what fighting Ozimbus would be like if he weren't playing.

As if out of nowhere, a gigantic black foot nailed Nikki strait in the face, sending him flying. When Nikki gained his ground, he saw Ozimbus laughing hysterically.

"Even a baby knows not to daydream in the middle of a fight!" yelled Ozimbus, choking "You're a disgrace!"

Nikki, feelings hurt, charged at Ozimbus with all of his fury and power. Ozimbus, still laughing, barely flinched as he put out his fist. Nikki ran straight into it and was sent flying, once again. This time, Nikki was seriously hurt. He felt like he was being stung by hundreds of wasps and hornets. Nikki felt like running away.

Ozimbus, still laughing, said, "I have no time for the likes of you! Be gone! And come back when you've mastered CLOWN KARATE! Huhuhahahahaha!"

Ozimbus struck the ground with a tiny pellet and teleported away in the purple smoke. Nikki was now alone. He could still hear Ozimbus's evil laugh in his head, playing over and over, and he couldn't clear his head of that scary cloak. Nikki was about to turn back to leave the room, when a large screen on the side of the room caught his attention. He didn't see it before because the pillars were hiding it from view. It was a clock, or a timer. It had three days, sixteen hours, four minutes, and thirty-seven seconds, counting down. Nikki wondered what would happen when the timer reached 'all-zeros'. Would Skulblakia gain tons of power? Would someone die? Would a bomb go off? Would Ozimbus' favorite weapon change again? Would the Chao in Space franchise cease to exist? All these questions and more bombarded Nikki as he left the room and began walking down the stairs.

At the base of the stairs, the door that almost shut on Nikki before was still intact. As Nikki took out his handgun to shoot it, he took notice of the inscription on the handle. It said 'Never give up without a fight.' The saying encouraged Nikki from the sad insulting defeat by Ozimbus just before. He readied his gun, took aim, and shot at the door. Nothing happened. He shot at it again. Nothing happened.

_ I'm trapped!_ Nikki thought nervously.

Nikki ran over to the door and pounded it with his fist, and unexpectedly, it opened. Nikki was confused at how the blast of the gun couldn't open the door but his fist could. He must have been really strong.

The sight in the landing base was pretty similar to how Nikki left it before he left. The dark chao were still streaming out of the side door, while the prisoners and Nimbus were trying to fight them back. Nikki noticed tons of dark chao lying on the floor and eight NCPA soldiers. Nikki felt sad for those eight even though it was a miracle that so many more than eight dark chao had been killed, but it didn't last very long because a bullet narrowly missed his head. Ducking and dodging, he ran across the room to where Nimbus was.

Nimbus, noticing him, asked, "Well, how did it go?"

"Terribly," replied Nikki sadly.

Nimbus looked at Nikki and said meaningfully, "At least you didn't die."

"Great, so do you how we can get out of here?" Ailey asked. "We can't hold off these soldiers forever!"

Nikki backed away from Nimbus, saying, "I'm a little tired right now. How would you feel if an ugly fly type with a cloak from hell came up to you and literally kicked you around?"

Cassius grumbled. "Fine, let us all die while you rest, big baby."

As Nikki kept backing away, he hit something. When he turned around, he noticed a Skulblakian star-fighter. Nikki then felt joyful for the first time since the prison break. He knew how to destroy the dark chao! Nikki hobbled into the fighter, observed the controls, and turned it on. No one noticed because of the loud noise of shooting and explosions. Nikki then took hold of the throttle and steered the fighter, which was hovering inches above the ground, towards the dark chao. He found the laser control and began firing at them, each bullet hitting large groups of dark chao. Nikki also shot the door from which the soldiers came out. The door collapsed, not letting any more dark chao into the room. Nikki shot at the dark chao some more, until he felt the fighter suddenly jerk to the right. Nikki felt stupid when he realized his fighter was attached to the launch runway. He was headed for the big metal door, and there was nothing he could do because the cockpit had closed on him automatically. He started pressing all the buttons and screaming. "HELP!"

An alarm sounded throughout the room, and at the same time, a voice through the intercom said LAUNCH SEQUENCE ACTIVATED, REPEAT, LAUNCH SEQUENCE ACTIVATED! Ailey, Rupie, Nimbus, and the others, who had defeated the last of the dark chao, turned their attention to Nikki's departing star-fighter.

"Nikki!" yelled Ailey and Rupie simultaneously.

"What does he think he's doing?" asked Caruso to Papoose.

"We have to try and stop him!" yelled Nimbus

Suddenly, a gigantic net fell over the group, entangling them inside of it. Wacky walked into the room holding a net gun.

He said, "No, No, No. You don't have to save Nikki… I'll do it for you! Ha, ha, ha!"

The others watched as Wacky climbed into a star-fighter and set his into the launch runway. Fang cut a hole through the net with a sword he seemed to get out of nowhere and allowed everyone else to get out. They eagerly searched the room for something they could use to save Nikki.

"Let's take the freighter!" yelled one of the NCPA soldiers.

"Great job soldier!" congratulated Nimbus. "You heard the guy! To the freighter!"

Nimbus then thought for a second and then said, "Soldiers! Someone has to take the warships back to the military station!"

All of the NCPA warriors then turned around and, obeying Nimbus's command, began exiting the city.

The rest of the group then began running for the freighter in the middle of the room.

Nikki sat hopelessly in the cockpit of the star-fighter. He noticed the metal door in front of him began to open. When it did, it was daylight, about eleven o'clock, Nikki estimated. He had learned his esimation skills from Cassius. His fighter exited the pyramid and headed for a long stretch of concrete. It was about a half-mile long and had a jump at the end of it. Nikki looked ahead nervously.

_Do all dark chao have to go through this? _wondered Nikki to himself.

The fighter stopped at the beginning of the long stretch. A voice through the intercom of the fighter said "LAUNCH SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. PREPARING TO ACTIVATE HYPERDRIVE IN TEN… NINE… EIGHT… SEVEN… SIX… FIVE… FOUR..." by this time Nikki noticed the fighter was vibrating, and that the engines were absorbing energy and glowing brighter and brighter. The intercom went on… "THREE… TWO… ONE… WE HAVE LIFT-OFF!" Nikki braced himself as the engines' absorbed energy was forced outward from the thrusters, propelling the fighter forward at an incredibly high speed. Before Nikki knew it, the fighter soared off the jump and just kept on going. Nikki looked at the mph gauge on the dashboard and noticed the fighter was going at a high speed of one-thousand-five-hundred-forty-two mph. Nikki didn't know what would happen next, but he just decided to let it come as it was, and to never give up without a fight.


	16. Field of Stars

**16**

**Field of Stars**

Nikki was almost asleep when he felt the fighter jolt suddenly. He noticed that he was actually exiting the atmosphere of Mobius. The fighter jerked again, and then again, as the fighter passed layer after layer of thin atmosphere. After a while, the fighter stopped jerking, and Nikki felt relaxed again. He then looked at his surroundings. He was in space of course, since this is indeed Chao in Space and it just wouldn't be the same if no one went to space, but he never pictured space being so beautiful. He could see the sapphire planet surrounded in snow-white clouds below. He noticed the stars, most of which weren't visible from Mobius. He noticed the moon, and he looked at the sun. His eyes briefly caught fire from the exposure, but he doused it with a cloth and stopped looking at the sun.

Nikki then noticed a weirdly-shaped object in the distance. It was too small to see from his point of view, so he decided to fly closer. As he did, he began to recognize the object as the dreaded space station from his nightmares. He wondered if it was going to crash into him like it did in his dreams. But he shrugged it off with the knowledge that dreams never come true.

Suddenly, Nikki noticed through the rear-view mirror that a laser was approaching him from behind. He used the throttle to steer out of the way, but the bullet skimmed the wing, leaving a burn mark.

Nikki then heard Wacky's voice through the intercom say, "Oops… I dropped my laser again. Would you mind fetching it for me?"

Nikki took the intercom and said, "Stop shooting at me! I have no time for the likes of you!"

At that second more bullets just missed Nikki's fighter.

"What do you want?" asked Nikki, frustrated.

Wacky giggled and said, "I want to destroy you, what else? Ozimbus has increased the bounty on your head, so since I'm a bounty hunter and all, I have to kill you on sight to get a taste of that delicious ice cream! Ha, ha, ha!"

"Go ahead and try!" yelled Nikki, ready to fight.

Nikki turned his fighter around to confront Wacky's. Nikki couldn't see Wacky at first but then after Wacky fired more lasers he had an easier time spotting him by following where the lasers came from. Nikki then wondered if his fighter had radar. He looked around on the control panel and found the radar. He turned it on, and he could see Wacky's location perfectly. Nikki fired a wave of lasers at Wacky. He noticed one of the lasers skimmed Wacky's fighter's wing, leaving a burn mark.

"Hey! Don't touch my stuff!" yelled Wacky, before firing more lasers.

Nikki dodged the lasers and said, "Well since it belongs to YOU I suppose I can scratch it up all I want, huh?"

"No! You can't do that! It's vandalism!" Yelled Wacky harshly.

Nikki fired more lasers and said, "Well then I guess I can scratch it up all I want, being yours and all!"

Wacky's fighter took another scar from a laser. Now Wacky was furious. He pressed an SOS button on his fighter. Nikki's radar sensed the vibrations of the call.

Nikki said, "What's wrong Wacky? Too many burns on your precious little fighter?"

Nikki then noticed a huge wave of lasers approaching him. He dodged them just in time. The radar began picking up other fighters heading straight towards him. There were thirty of them.

Nikki asked sarcastically, "You brought that many reinforcements because you couldn't handle tiny little me?"

"No, I just want to cream you faster, that's all." replied Wacky, satisfied with his decision.

Nikki fired a wave of lasers at the incoming fighters and hit five of them. They all completely exploded. Nikki then fired more lasers at another fighter, and it exploded. The Skulblakians fired back at Nikki, and missed every shot because Nikki was too fast. Wacky took aim at Nikki and fired a missile at him. Nikki, noticing the missile, sped up his fighter until it was side-to-side with another fighter. As the missile approached, he moved out of the way and the missile hit the other fighter. Nikki took aim at a group of fighters and then fired several other missiles of his own. The group of fighters was engulfed in a cloud of fire and disappeared.

There were only three Skulblakian fighters left now. Wacky was enraged. He couldn't believe Nikki had taken out most of his fighters in such a short time. He was determined to get revenge. Wacky, laughing to himself, pressed a red button on his fighter. Out of the fighter emerged a gigantic super-missile. Wacky aimed the missile at Nikki and pressed the red button again. The gigantic missile then charged for Nikki.

Nikki didn't panic even a tiny bit, and calmly came up with an idea. He steered his fighter in a way so that it was headed for the missile. Nikki then fired a regular missile at the bigger one. Both missiles exploded, sending out a shockwave and a cloud of burning shrapnel. A piece of shrapnel his Wacky's engine, and it caught fire.

"Bloody hell!" cried Wacky through the intercom. "You haven't seen the last of me, Nikki-Mc-Dummy!"

Wacky then steered his injured fighter towards the space station and used his hyperdrive to get away. The three other fighters followed Wacky's example. They even yelled 'bloody hell!' and 'Nikki-Mc-Dummy' through the intercom. Nikki then felt a sense of strength and power come to him.

_I defeated Wacky! _exclaimed Nikki in his mind. _There's nothing that makes me feel more complete than hearing him scream._

Nikki then decided to look in his rear mirror to see if any more fighters were coming. Instead, he saw a space freighter heading straight towards him. It was coming from Mobius, so Nikki guessed it was taking supplies to the space station. Nikki hoped the freighter's captain didn't see him trash up Wacky just a few seconds before.

The freighter just kept on coming, and it showed no signs of turning or stopping. Nikki got nervous. He decided to use his hyperdrive to get away. He was about to press the button until he heard a familiar voice through the intercom. "Nikki, is that you?"

"Yes, it is. Who's this?" Nikki replied, nervously.

"Its Nimbus! Are you ok?" asked Nimbus.

"I'm fine, duh! How did you get that freighter?" asked Nikki.

Nimbus replied, "After you left in the fighter, I decided to round everyone up and take the freighter and follow you."

Nikki then heard Caruso say through the intercom, "We saw Wacky take a star-fighter and take off after you. Did you meet him yet?"

Nikki replied, "Yeah, I took care of that wimp! He barely scratched my fighter!"

"What happened to him?" asked Caruso.

"He chickened out and dashed for the space station," replied Nikki.

There was a long pause. Then, Nimbus finally spoke up.

He said, "So, want to come in?"

Nikki replied, "Sure, what for?"

"So we can go check out that space station, of course!" replied Nimbus.

Nimbus activated the freighter's tractor beam and pulled Nikki's star-fighter inside. He was greeted by his friends, all of which had questions regarding Wacky, except for Fang.

When it was Fang's turn to ask questions, he asked, "So, how did things go with Ozimbus?"

Nikki, suddenly depressed, replied, "Not too well."

"What happened?"

Nikki replied, "Well… it's just that Ozimbus is so much better at his broadswords than I am and I just can't seem to-"

"Wait! Hold on!" Fang interrupted. "You were dueling with broadswords?!"

"Uh, yeah, why?" replied Nikki confused.

Fang yelled, "You should have told me! I could have taught you some advanced moves with those!"

Nikki, astonished, asked, "YOU know how to fight with broadswords?"

Fang, proud of himself, said, "You forget I was once Ozimbus's best pal! He taught me everything I know! Watch!"

Fang took out his own set of broadswords, one of which he had used to cut the net open, and did the same flying head-stab move that Ozimbus tried to use on Nikki before. Then he span round and round, swirling the swords around, so that he looked like a ninja.

"Wow! You're great!" complimented Nikki. "You're definitely not a B-level broadsword fighter like Nimbus. Can you teach me some moves?"

Nimbus sniffled.

"Sure I will, but right after I finish my roast duck." Fang pulled out a steaming hot pot of food.

"No. Teach me now," Nikki demanded.

"Roast. Duck." Fang clenched his fist and gave Nikki an evil eye.

"Ok fine whatever." Nikki, slightly disgusted, turned around and decided to look out a gigantic window. The space station was close now, and Nikki could make out every detail clearly. It looked like a long arrow-shaped rod attached in the center of three perpendicular rings. On the center of the rod was the bulging body of the space station, which had the Skulblakian symbol on it; the red 'S' and the lightning bolts. The entire station looked like one huge super-mega-destruction mechanism just waiting for the right time to strike.

Nikki then decided to review the B-level moves Nimbus taught him while Fang finished his roast duck.


	17. The Space Station

**17**

**The Space Station**

Soon after, while Nikki was practicing with Fang, he felt the engines on the freighter suddenly turn off.

"What's happening?" asked Rupie, frightened.

"I'm watching something," replied Nimbus.

Nikki, astonished, said, "Nimbus! Don't you know that now's not the time to be watching TV?"

Nimbus, annoyed, replied, "I'm not watching TV! I'm watching that comm. satellite!"

"What comm. satellite?" asked Chaolin

"That one" replied Nimbus, pointing out the window.

Everyone gathered at the window to see a gray-blue satellite floating alone in the stars. It was long and arrow-shaped, like the Skulblakian satellite, but had only one ring around the skinny body, and it had a mushroom-looking dome on the top of the long rod, which was its main body. The only other difference was that the Skulblakian space station was three times the comm.'s size. Nikki then turned to look at the Skulblakian space station. He noticed a gigantic circular door open on the main body, right where the Skulblakian symbol was.

"Hey guys! Look at that!" exclaimed Nikki to the others.

The group gasped in horror as they watched a long vicious-looking cannon extend from the depths of the space station. It was aimed at the comm. satellite. The comm. satellite then began sluggishly to move away from the space station, realizing its danger. The cannon began absorbing energy, and rod-like scepters surrounding the barrel were glowing bright. The cannon was silent for a second after it was done charging. Then, when everyone most expected it, the cannon loudly fired a huge blue laser towards the evacuating comm. satellite. Once the laser hit its mark, the comm. satellite was vaporized into millions of tiny pieces.

Papoose, shocked, announced, "Well, now we know what happened when the communication shut down."

Nimbus, infuriated, yelled, "That's no fair! That space station is actually a battle station! And not just that, I bet it is Skulblakia's central comm. satellite, too! Ozimbus leaves Chao World and Emerald Hill Island without telephones, radios, and TVs, while his Skulblakian snobs are having the time of their lives calling each other and watching their favorite shows!"

"Calm down, Nimbus. Anger is the last thing we need right now," said Ailey, soothingly.

"Don't tell me to calm down, woman!" Nimbus was about to punch Ailey, but Fang punched Nimbus first. Nimbus got knocked unconscious.

"Puny god," Fang muttered.

Five minutes later, the freighter flew into the landing bay of the Skulblakian space station. Nikki and the others already had a plan to get around the satellite unnoticed. They were to all wear handcuffs, except for Caruso and Fang, who acted like prison guards.

On the way down the ramp, a dark normal type came up and asked Caruso, "Where are you taking them?"

"The prison," reported Caruso, confidently.

"Is that your final answer?" asked the normal type.

"Yes siree bobby!" replied Caruso.

The normal type laughed hysterically and said, "You fool! There is no prison on this satellite! You cannot fool me with your game of 'cops and robbers'! Security! Security! We have intruders on board!"

Without further ado, the security showed up. It was made up entirely of dark power types with their maces.

"Run!" Yelled Nikki. "They can't shoot so you just have to stay out of reach of their maces! It's easy!"

Nikki bolted towards a door on the side of the room, followed by Fang, Chaolin, Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose. The door in front of Nikki began to shut. Nikki made it under, then Chaolin, then Fang, then Cassius, Caruso, and Papoose. The door closed only seconds after.

Caruso asked, curious, "Where is everyone else? You know, Ailey and Rupie and Nimbus? Where did they go?"

A jolt of fear shot through Nikki, as he thought of Ailey and Rupie left behind at the mercy of the ruthless dark power types. He hoped Nimbus was doing his best to protect them, wherever they were. Nikki then turned to Papoose to see him holding a laptop.

"Where in space did you get that, Papoose?" asked Nikki, astonished.

"Right here on the floor," replied Papoose, proud of himself.

"What's on it?" asked Caruso.

"Let me see…" there was a pause as Papoose was shifting through data on the laptop. "Ooh! This is interesting! It has some awesome recipes for roast duck!"

"Mmmmm… roast duck!" replied Fang, hungrily.

"See what else you can find," said Nikki.

"Something useful on Skulblakia" added Caruso.

There was a long pause as Papoose typed 'Skulblakia battle strategies' in the search box.

"There is only one," replied Papoose after he found it.

"Read it! It's gotta be important!" demanded Chaolin.

"Chaolin, don't' demand. It doesn't suit you," Caruso muttered.

"Oh ok," Chaolin took a deep breath. "Papoose, please read it. It's probably very important."

"Better," Caruso nodded.

The group watched as Papoose's face turned from curious to shock and then to despair.

"Oh, no…" said Papoose, almost in a whisper.

"What is it?" asked Nikki, apprehensively.

"Here, take it away" replied Papoose, half-stunned.

On the laptop screen was a description of the second most death-defying thing Nikki had seen on his journey yet, second only to Ozimbus' cloak. It said:

*Skulblakian Plan of Attack*

**Step 1:** Build countless amounts of weapons, tanks, fighters, warships, and space freighters.

**Step 2:** Amass all troops in Diamond City and wait for the solar eclipse.

**Step 3:** Hike the army across the sea to the NCPA military station

**Step 4:** Bake the NCPA a cake

**Step 5: **Destroy the NCPA!

Nikki was stunned. That was the worst and most threatening thing that could possibly happen, except maybe for a second humiliating defeat at the hands of Ozimbus and his hellish cloak.

"What does the solar eclipse have to do with anything?" Caruso asked.

Fang then looked at Caruso as if he was completely stupid and replied, "During a solar eclipse, Skulblakian weapons gain an unimaginable amount of power. With that power, one blast from an ordinary machine gun could dismantle a tank in half a second. The worst part of it is, since the sun is blocked and everything mechanical on Chao World and Emerald Hill Island runs on solar power, the NCPA's weapons and tanks will malfunction, leaving them at the mercy of Emperor Ozimbus and his forces… for one hour."

Papoose raised his hand. "Wait, so, how does anything mechanical on Chao World and Emerald Hill Island work at night? Or when it's cloudy?"

Fang shook his head. "No one knows, but solar eclipses have a dirty habit of cheating the laws of physics and rendering all sun-powered stuff useless… for one hour."

Chaolin, hopeful, asked, "Since solar eclipses only last… for one hour, can't we just beat up Skulblakia after the eclipse?"

Fang looked disturbed. "Hell no. By the time the eclipse ends, the dark chao will already have destroyed Chao World and enslaved everyone who survived their malicious attack."

Nikki and Cassius then, at the same time, remembered their various nightmares about the space station, dark chao, and the wall of water. They finally realized what the purple cursed moon that ate the sun was… It was a solar eclipse! Things made a little more sense to them now.

Nikki then remembered the timer he had seen in Ozimbus's throne room.

_ That must be how much time until the solar eclipse!_ Nikki thought, unsure if he should be excited about the information or frightened. _That must mean we have about two days to come up with a plan._

"What's the matter?" asked Fang.

"I'm fine," Nikki replied. "I just need something to keep my mind off of the eclipse."

"Then I guess now would be a good time for me to teach you some moves with those swords!" said Fang.

"No. I want ice cream," Nikki demanded.

"We don't have any," Caruso sighed. "We never did find Ozimbus' stash of ice cream. I really wish we did."

All of the chao sat there silently for a moment, regretting their loss.

After a while, Fang spoke up. "Alright. How about those swords?"

"Fine," Nikki muttered.


	18. ZXY007

**18**

**ZXY007**

Ailey, Rupie, and Nimbus hurried down the metallic hall of the space station. After Nikki and the others had run through the door of one of the other halls, the door slammed shut, leaving Ailey, Rupie, and Nimbus to confront the dark chao guards alone. They ran down a different hall, and now they were being chased by the guards around what seemed like the entire station.

"This way!" exclaimed Nimbus to Ailey and Rupie, pointing to a utility closet at the end of a small hallway. They ran into the closet and hid in a box of weapons, as the guards ran past, thinking they ran down a different hall.

"Hahaha, stupid guards!" said Rupie happily.

"Works every time!" added Nimbus.

"But where do we go now?" asked Ailey apprehensively. "We don't have a map of this place, and we don't have the slightest idea where Nikki and the others went.

"Well, how about we just look around the station and find some weaknesses to it, so we can shut it down somehow?" suggested Nimbus.

"Do you always have to be that optimistic Nimbus?" asked Ailey annoyed. "You know this place is packed with killer dark chao, right? Have you ever considered the thought that Ozimbus could have followed us here after he beat up Nikki? What if we run in to him? What if he's wearing that cloak?! Then what will we do?!"

Rupie jumped in. "Now you're being too pessimistic with your 'considered thoughts' and 'what ifs!' I'm with Nimbus on this one. That cloak sounds really scary, but I don't think we have a choice."

"Oh, ok, but don't blame me if we get tossed in prison because we were found snooping around!" said Ailey, stubborn.

"So, where do we start?" Nimbus asked Ailey and Rupie as he clambered out of the weapons box.

"Don't ask me, you're the general," replied Rupie. She then pointed to the left hall, opposite from where the guards ran minutes before. "Let's just go that way."

"Ok, I'll lead the way. I am the general after all," said Nimbus with a sparkle as he began walking down the hall.

After about four minutes of walking down a hallway, the three began hearing voices up ahead.

"I hear the guards! Their coming to get us! Hide!" whispered Ailey, hiding behind Rupie's shoulder.

"Don't worry Ailey," said Nimbus, not the least bit worried. "If the guards were coming this way, we would hear their footsteps by now.

The three then began quietly slinking towards where the voices came from. When they could finally make out what the voices were saying, they stopped and listened.

One voice said, "…that Zelbai planned is going to be magnificent! Too bad he isn't around to see it."

Ailey and Rupie recognized this voice, and traced it to find that it was the voice of the boisterously annoying dark swim type who had been given the privilege of being governor of Emerald Hill Island under Emperor Ozimbus.

The second voice replied, "I want to see it! Why won't you let me?!"

Without thinking, Ailey, Rupie, and Nimbus new from the complaining - type voice that it was Wacky.

"I can't let you see it until it's finished. Emperor Ozimbus's orders," said the swim type.

"Can't you sneak me in?" complained Wacky. "I really want to see ZXY007 REALLY bad!"

"No, I can't. Besides, it doesn't even look threatening without its final adjustments," replied the swim type.

"Abzilro, Please let me! I don't care how deformed it looks!" pleaded Wacky.

"Abzilro?!" Ailey and Rupie said in high-pitched whispers. "What kind of name is that? It's so stupid!"

Nimbus gave them a gentle shove to make them be quiet.

"No, for the last time, Wacky! I don't approve, Ozimbus wouldn't approve, Zelbai wouldn't approve… your mother wouldn't even approve!" yelled Abzilro

"Very funny," Wacky retorted. "Zelbai didn't even create ZXY007. If you pay close attention to the 007 part, you can tell that this is the seventh model of Zelbai's original plan, which means the first of the series, called ZXY001, couldn't even be created. The 002 through 006 projects were equally failures! Why does dead-and-gone Zelbai get the credit?"

"Who pressed your smart button?" Abzilro muttered. "That's probably the smartest thing you've said since you joined Skulblakia. But Emperor Zelbai was the one who got the idea of creating an indestructible war monster, which he called ZXY001. It was later renamed the ZXY series after 001 malfunctioned during its creation, as did 002 through 006." Abzilro paused, and then continued, "Although thanks to Ozimbus ZXY007 will be the first of the ZXY series to be completed and used, it was Zelbai who came up with the wonderful idea."

"What makes you think ZXY007 will work, anyway?" Wacky asked. "What if it fails like all the others?"

"ZXY007 has reached the point of no return as far as success is concerned," Abzilro replied with an ominous chuckle. "The parts are coming together as we speak. It takes two parts to make a whole, Wacky, and when that whole manifests itself… all the chao nations will bow before me-er, it… it. Yes," Abzilro coughed.

"Whatever," Wacky muttered.

After Abzilro's lecture on the ZXY series, all Nimbus, Ailey, and Rupie could think was that Wacky wised up and finally stopped arguing with Abzilro, for there was now total silence.

Nimbus then said, "It sounds like they left. Let's go into the room and see if we can find any more useful information."

Rupie nodded right away, and, after hesitation, Ailey copied Rupie.

As the three slinked towards the door Wacky and Abzilro had just exited, Nimbus had many questions, like what exactly was ZXY007? What happened that caused the six before it to malfunction during creation? How did Abzilro know so much about something only the emperors of Skulblakia were supposed to know? When was ZXY007 going to be completed? Would it be used to destroy Chao World? Emerald Hill Island? The whole world? Or worse - the entire galaxy?

Finally, after what seemed like hours of slinking and thinking about the unanswered questions, the three reached the door to the room where Wacky and Abzilro had their conversation. The door had a sign on it that said:

**LAB PRODUCTION FILES**

**DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION**

Nimbus then quietly opened the door.

Ailey slapped Nimbus. "Nimbus! Can't you read!? You can't enter without permission!"

Nimbus rolled his eyes and counted to ten. "…Can I enter this room?"

"Yeah sure whatever," Ailey nodded.

"Great, thanks." Nimbus took a peek inside, and then whispered to the others, "All clear!"

The three cautiously entered the room and closed the door.

"We shouldn't make too much noise or we'll attract attention" suggested Nimbus.

"And lock the door" added Ailey, fastening the lock on the door.

The room they were in was a fairly small room with file cabinets lining the walls. In the middle of the room was a table with several stacks of work papers piled on top of each other. Some of the stacks were tied with string like a package. There were two chairs near the table, most likely where Wacky and Abzilro had their conversation.

Nimbus began searching through papers on the desk, but all he could find were the original blueprints to the city of Zelbai, back on Skulblakia.

"Ailey, see if you can find anything in that cabinet over there," Nimbus gestured towards one of the many file cabinets. "Rupie, see if you can find anything in a different cabinet."

"I found a treasure map!" announced Ailey. "It leads to Ozimbus' ice cream stash! X marks the spot!"

"That map will be extremely useful to us later. Go ahead and put it in the bag."

"What bag?" Ailey tilted her head.

"Why, my trusty knapsack of course," Nimbus sparkled.

"Oh. Right." Ailey put the map in Nimbus' knapsack and then kept searching through more papers, only to find a bunch of useless junk.

"Nimbus! Come here quick!" shouted Rupie, careful not to make too much noise.

"What is it?" asked Ailey and Nimbus simultaneously.

"It's… it's… the Shadow Diamond… It's a paper about the Shadow Diamond," Rupie said stuttering, not sure if she should be horrified or excited about the newfound information.

The Shadow Diamond was a dark mysterious gem that was the source of all dark powers. It absorbed its power from darkness and the moon, and it was from that very gem that Emperor Ozimbus and the other Skulblakian emperors obtained their evil powers. There were rumors that during a solar eclipse, the Shadow Diamond absorbed ten times the energy it would absorb in an average night, resulting in the dark chao's powers multiplying by ten thousand.

"What does the paper say about the Shadow Diamond?" Nimbus asked patiently.

Rupie began to read out loud, "Day three: I began to feel the power of the Shadow Diamond calling me nearer, as I walked through the jagged passes inside Mt. Magmus. I still had a long way to go, however. I estimated a couple hundred feet down the cavern, somewhere…" Rupie skipped the boring part about how the narrator got down several hundred feet. "Day five: The power of the Diamond is pulling me like a rope now. It is calling me into the darkness. I only have to take as much power from the Shadow Diamond as Emperor Ozimbus requested, enough to activate ZXY007 and seal together its two glorious parts. As a whole it will be more evil and impure than the Emperor himself, and no force in the universe will be able to stop it…" Rupie stopped in horror. How could anything be more evil than the Emperor himself?

Nimbus, sensing her discomfort, said, "It's ok, Rupie. I won't force you to read anymore. Just put the paper in the knapsack and we'll take it back to the NCPA to analyze it."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The three froze with terror.

"We've been found!" whispered Ailey franticly.

"No we haven't," said Nimbus calmly. "Look over here."

There was a trap door right by where Nimbus was standing.

There was another knock on the door, and then a voice said, "Hey! Is anyone in there? Let me in!"

It was Abzilro's voice.

"Quick! Everyone inside!" Nimbus whispered to Ailey and Rupie.

The two climbed down the ladder in the door, and Nimbus followed, closing the door.

The dark passage led to another ladder and a dead end. Nimbus, Ailey, and Rupie all hoped this ladder didn't take them to a room full of guards, or even just one guard. Cautiously, Nimbus climbed the ladder, holding his gun, just in case.


	19. Reunited

**19**

**Reunited**

"Good! Good!" Fang yelled, as Nikki twirled around with his broadswords, slashing at the air.

"Now, just remember to be ready to defend any of the enemy's blows while you're attacking," Fang instructed, as Nikki demonstrated several attack moves on his imaginary foe.

"Alright Nikki. You can take a break for now."

"You're doing great Nikki!" Caruso said with awe in his eyes.

"Thanks!" replied Nikki. "I really am awesome, aren't I?"

Suddenly, the entire group heard a noise. It sounded like a banging-on-metal type sound.

_ Did the guards hear me and Fang practicing? _Nikki asked himself.

After a while, the sound was louder, and it seemed to be coming from under the floor_._

"What could be making that noise?" asked Papoose, nervously.

"Tile trolls!" Chaolin screamed. "Run away! Before it's too late!"

That second, one of the metal floor tiles lifted to reveal Nimbus.

"Nimbus!" yelled everyone, with divine reverence in their voices.

Except Chaolin. She grabbed the tile and began beating Nimbus over the head while screaming. "I'll hold it back! Run while you still can!"

Fang picked up Chaolin by the top of the head and pulled her away. "That's General Nimbus, you twit. What kind of Chao School teacher are you, anyway?"

"…Oh," Chaolin was petrified with shame.

Nimbus healed himself and then sparkled. "Oh, there you are! I was wondering what happened to you!"

"What's going on Nimbus?" asked Ailey, still under the floor.

"It's Nikki and the rest of the group! We've found them!"

Everyone could hear the joyful shouts of Ailey and Rupie somewhere underneath Nimbus. Nikki was especially glad for their safety.

Nikki then remembered that Nimbus, Ailey, and Rupie didn't know about the solar eclipse and Skulblakia's plan to bake the NCPA a cake. As Ailey and Rupie clambered out of the secret passage after Nimbus, Nikki was thinking of what to say to Nimbus. He knew he wasn't going to be too happy.

As soon as Rupie put the metal panel back on the floor, Nimbus and Nikki stared at each other for several seconds.

Nikki then suddenly blurted out the whole lot of the plan, "Solar eclipse… Skulblakia… power… NCPA… powerless… cake…"

Nikki then noticed Nimbus was blurting out a bunch of nonsense as well, "Wacky… Abzilro… ZXY007… evil… indestructible… Shadow Diamond…"

Nimbus suddenly stopped when he realized Nikki was also blurting something out.

They stared at each other until Nimbus finally spoke, "You can tell us what you found out first."

"Yes! I'm awesome!" Nikki struck a pose, and then took a deep breath and then explained to Nimbus, Ailey, and Rupie what Papoose found out on the laptop.

He ended by saying, "So if we don't stop Ozimbus and Skulblakia before the eclipse, we'll lose the war, and all will be lost."

Nimbus, spellbound, said, "That's so cool! I love cake. But they totally stole my sea-hiking idea, how dare they. It only gets worse once I tell you what I found out, however."

Nikki, anxious, said, "Go ahead and tell us."

Nimbus then explained to Nikki and the rest of the group what he had found out about ZXY007 and the Shadow Diamond.

He ended by saying, "We don't know what this thing is or when it will be completed, but we do know that since the Shadow Diamond will be used to seal it together, it will be no easy matter taking it on. Apparently it will be more evil than the Emperor himself."

Nikki couldn't even speak. He felt as if he had a huge weight dropped on top of him, along with the already-unbearable weight of the solar eclipse ordeal.

Cassius, curious, asked, "Do you think ZXY007 will be completed at the same time as the eclipse?"

Nimbus replied, "I sure hope not. It's hard enough to stop Ozimbus and his troops as it is. We don't need anything making it worse. If we're lucky, we can find the lab in which it's contained and destroy it before it can be activated with the Shadow Diamond.

Suddenly, the voices of dark chao guards rang through the hallway, their footsteps not far behind.

A dark normal type rounded a corner and said, "There they are! Get them!"

The entire group got up and ran with a dozen guards after them.

Nimbus then suggested, "Now's the time I think we should leave the space station."

Nikki nodded in approval.

The group ran through hallway after hallway. Eventually Rupie spoke up, "Why don't the dark chao make their space stations with something else besides hallways? Don't you think they get a little old after a while?"

Nimbus glared at her to make her be quiet.

Finally, the group reached a room that wasn't a hallway. There were several Skulblakian star-fighters parked by an open launch door that led out of the station. There were enough star-fighters for everyone, and many more.

"Grab a fighter and let's go!" commanded Nimbus.

Everyone in the group got inside a fighter.

Nikki, teaching them how to drive it, said, "Pull the lever on the left side to turn it on. The fighter will launch itself after that. When the fighter is done launching, press the green button to fire your lasers, the stripped black and yellow button for missiles, and you can use the throttle to steer, go faster, or slow down. It's easy, anyone can do it."

As Nikki finished his sentence, the dark chao entered the room and began firing at them.

"Pull the lever! Now!" Nikki yelled as he set his fighter's launch coordinates as if he'd done it before.

Soon after, the rest of the group did the same, and they took off, while still being fired upon by the guards and soldiers.

Before Nikki knew it, he was in space once again. He had a certain love for space. He thought it was the most beautiful place he had ever been. Nikki knew he could live here if he got the chance. He loved seeing all the stars in the galaxy, he loved how there was no day and night, and he loved how fresh the sun, moon, and planets looked without Mobius' polluted atmosphere to block out their beauty. He wished he could forget about Skulblakia and just think about space for the rest of his life. Was that too much to ask? Nikki briefly considered turning away from Mobius and flying away into empty space, never to be seen again. But that was too unrealistic. Everyone would miss him. Chao World would be destroyed, not to mention Emerald Hill Island. The world desperately needed Nikki the Chao.

"Nikki! They're following us!" Chaolin said, interrupting his daydream.

Nikki looked into his rear mirror and saw a cloud of fighters trailing them. Soon after, bullets whizzed from behind as the fighters began to fire. Nikki then had an idea.

"Turn around and fly into the other fighters!" Nikki instructed to the rest of the chao. "Our fighters all look the same so they'll have trouble finding us, and we can sneak out!"

Nimbus, jealous of him, said, "Nikki that plan sucks. Let the NCPA general make the plans from now on."

"Psh," Nikki rolled his eyes. "Fine then, what's your plan?"

"We'll turn around and fly into the other fighters! Our fighters all look the same so they'll have trouble finding us, and we can sneak out!"

"That's a wonderful idea!" Ailey congratulated.

"It'll work for sure!" said Rupie.

"You are definitely a wise general," Fang added.

Nimbus blushed. "You're too kind, friends. Really."

Nikki didn't even have words to describe what just happened.

Before anyone could say anything else, Nimbus led the others in a u-turn towards the enemy fighters.

Papoose then asked, "Won't they know who we are with the radar?"

Nimbus replied, "We're in Skulblakian fighters, so the radar thinks we're on their side. Just look at yours"

Papoose looked at his radar and noticed all the fighters on the screen were green, even the ones firing at him.

Nimbus led the group head-on into the firing fighters. Once inside the cloud, he noticed he couldn't tell who his friends were apart from his enemies. All the ships were the same! The frantic fighters zipped around like angry bees looking for someone to sting.

Nikki then said, "Drive your fighter full throttle towards Mobius!"

Without hesitation, some of the fighters leaked out of the mob and began speeding towards the big blue planet. Nikki then did the same.

Once they were away from the other fighters, the group reunited.

Nikki then said, "When you break through the atmosphere, adjust your speed to its lowest so that your fighter doesn't catch fire on the way down."

After everyone did just that and were speeding downward, Nikki continued, "To land, just pull up slightly on the throttle to make you parallel with the ground. Then pull the lever on the right down all the way to help the fighter slow down. Then you can press the blue button directly above the throttle to activate the stands."

"Wow Nikki, you're so good at flying star-fighters!" Ailey shouted. "I have no idea how you know how to land a star-fighter since you've never done it before, but I completely trust you!"

"Thanks. What are friends for?" Nikki smiled.

Several minutes later, the group had landed at the NCPA military station. The soldiers who had rescued the warships from the Skulblakian bay had returned a short time before then and warned the NCPA security not to shoot down Skulblakian fighters that tried to land at the station. With many secrets to tell, Nikki felt nervous and excited, for he knew the most climactic part of the war was approaching.


	20. Battle Plans

**20**

**Battle Plans**

"Nimbus! Where have you been? We thought you were never coming back!" Yelled several NCPA soldiers as Nikki, Nimbus, and the group walked inside the NCPA military station.

"Bah! Me? Never come back?" Nimbus burst out laughing.

They were currently supposed to speak to the Chao World Secretary of War, Bandit, about what they had seen and heard on their journey. Nikki wondered what Bandit would think about all this, especially the solar eclipse junk. ZXY007 didn't concern Nikki very much anymore. It didn't sound scary at all compared to something as evil as Ozimbus' cloak.

When the group reached Bandit's office, they, except for Nimbus, were surprised that Bandit was actually a dark chao. Bandit was a dark run type, but he was bigger than any Nikki had ever seen, although compared to Ozimbus's cloak, he would be a mere worm.

Bandit finally spoke, "Welcome back Nimbus! I'm sure you have many things to tell me. You and your group can have a seat on those chairs over there."

Nikki thought Bandit was pretty nice, being a dark chao and all. It was like his friend Caruso's case. Caruso was a dark swim type, but not at all as mean-looking, rude, and annoying as Abzilro. It just came to show that you shouldn't judge everything by its cover. Judging a chao for being hero, neutral, or dark was very racist indeed. Nikki began to listen as Nimbus told Bandit everything they did on their journey. They were in the room for hours, talking about the big naval battle, the prison break at Skulblakia, the failure fight with Ozimbus, the accidental trip to the space station, and the two Skulblakian plans of attack. Bandit couldn't believe anything about the solar eclipse or ZXY007.

"How do you know this will happen? What if they're just lying? Putting that stuff in plain sight so we'll find it and panic for nothing? I mean, from their point of view it'd be pretty hilarious. How can they get enough warriors to challenge the NCPA? No one can penetrate our fortress! It's made out of the toughest steel in all Chao World, which is actually rather weak but still! We're invincible!"

Nimbus, sparkling, said, "They'll come with cake."

"Damn it, you're right!" Bandit pounded his fist on the table. "That is bad news! No one can resist cake! They'll get in for sure!"

"I'm glad you see reason," Nimbus nodded. "But in case there's any doubt left in your mind, here's the proof."

Nimbus signaled to Papoose and Rupie, as they handed their items of proof, the laptop and the Shadow Diamond report, to Bandit. He started at the paper for a while, his eyes wide. Then he opened the laptop, typed a few words to search, and his eyes opened wider.

"We… We've got to do something about this!" Bandit announced, awestruck. "This is serious business! We need to act now!"

"Well, Mr. Secretary of War, how exactly should we act?" asked Nimbus.

Bandit thought for a while, and then said, "Here! I've got something for you all!"

Bandit reached into one of his drawers and pulled out a box of cell phones.

"These phones use the energy waves of Skulblakia's space station. They were brought by some NCPA spies shortly after you left." Bandit handed a phone to everyone. "They should come in great use without the comm. satellites around, and if I need to tell you anything I could just call you and let you know."

Nikki, confused, said, "Two things. Why would you call us if we're standing right in front of you, and what if the dark chao find out about this?"

Bandit replied, "The dark chao aren't going to find out because we're going to keep this a secret."

"What if they tap the phones?" Nikki asked.

"You mean like this?" Bandit tapped a phone with his hand. "Big lot that'll do."

Nikki sighed. "No, stupid! I meant what if they somehow trace our calls and listen in on what we're saying?"

"Oh… I see your dilemma…" Bandit thought for a moment. "Well, they won't. They won't because I said so, and I'm the Secretary of War."

"How do you know they won't?"

"They just won't ok? They won't. You'll see. You'll just have to trust me on this one."

Nikki rolled his eyes. "Fine."

"Anyway," Bandit continued, "To answer your first question, I'll be calling you because this laptop says the Skulblakian forces are gathering at Diamond City, so that's where you'll be going to get ready for their attack."

At the mention of Diamond City, Ailey and Rupie grew more excited than they have ever been on the whole trip. They couldn't believe they were finally returning to their home island of Emerald Hill Island.

Nikki, as if he knew what they were thinking, asked, "You do know it will be a lot different and a lot less peaceful with a huge dark chao army there plotting destruction, right?"

Ailey and Rupie sadly replied, "Yes, we know."

"In the mean time, Nimbus, we need to do something about that space station" Bandit announced. "So here's what I need you to do. While I assign everyone else here a job to do at Diamond City, I need you to pick out several of you best fighter pilots and prepare to fly to the space station and knock it out of the skies once and for all! Got it?"

Nimbus, excitement in his eyes, said, "Yes, I've got it! I'll start right away!"

Nikki could stand it no longer. He just had to release what he knew about the solar eclipse. Nikki blurted, "Bandit, I saw a timer inside Ozimbus's throne room. I think it tells how much longer we have until the solar eclipse, and if that's true, then we have twenty hours until the eclipse. And you can totally trust my estimation skills, I learned them from Cassius and he's legit."

"Well said bro," Cassius held his hand up for a high-five.

"Thanks bro," Nikki high-fived Cassius.

Bandit looked grave, and then said, "We've got to do this quickly! Nimbus! Go get fighter pilots! We don't have much time!"

Nimbus nodded and then ran off to find his best fighter pilots.

"So, out of you, who should lead the way to Diamond City?" asked Bandit. Everyone looked at Ailey and Rupie, for they knew it was their home island.

"Everyone votes you should lead the way," Bandit said to Ailey. "What is your name, so when I have to call you I can do it properly?"

Ailey replied, "My name's Ailey, but I can't lead the way alone, so I'd like to ask if my best friend Rupie can lead with me. We're both from Emerald Hill Island. We know the way."

Bandit looked at her with a face of disgust and said, "Of course not. Your friend can't lead with you. There is everything in the world wrong with that, Ailey. Why do you have to be so dumb?"

Nikki pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Bandit. "Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Taaaaaake it back right now. Right now. Now. Now. Now. Or I'll pop your head."

Bandit sighed. "Fine. Ok Ailey, of course your friend can lead with you. There's nothing wrong with that at all, Ailey. You're so smart."

"Thank you!" replied Ailey and Rupie simultaneously.

Nikki nodded and put his gun away.

Bandit muttered incoherently and then continued explaining stuff. "Ok, Ailey, Rupie, I have readied several transportation vehicles to carry all of the supplies and warriors you'll need to prepare a fort overnight before the dark chao begin their charge tomorrow morning. The transportation vehicles look just like the civilian carriers that bring fruit, grain, and other goods back and forth between the islands, so you should have no trouble with dark chao being suspicious. And remember, you only have twenty hours until the eclipse, so set up quickly!"

"Ok, got it!" said Ailey and Rupie simultaneously. They then walked off with the rest of the group behind them.

Before Fang, Chaolin, and Nikki could walk out of the room, Bandit stopped them, saying, "You three stay here. I have special jobs for you."

The three turned around just as the door was shut behind them.

"What do you want us to do?" asked Nikki. "There's nothing more for us to do. After the dark chao army and the space station are destroyed there is nothing more Skulblakia can do."

Bandit smiled and said, "No, no! That isn't even close to what I was going to have you do!"

"Then what are we going to do?" asked Chaolin, somewhat anxious

"You do remember when Skulblakia took over Chao World two weeks ago, how King Kirtie was captured?" Bandit asked, then continued without waiting to hear an answer, "Our spies came back reporting that he was taken to Skulblakia and hidden in Ozimbus's throne room, somewhere in a secret chamber, along with King Scamper's best guard, Cloudy, and his assistant, Stratus. There may be even more chao trapped in that chamber for all we know. It's your job to rescue them while the dark chao army is distracted with the space station attack and the solar eclipse plan."

"Ok, sounds easy enough," said Chaolin. "Like teaching Chao School but with more death involved."

Bandit continued, "The only problem is that we don't have any available transportation right now, so you'll have to wait about an hour until the next carrier from Emerald Hill Island arrives. Then I can arrange to have it cleared out for you and you can take it to Skulblakia. Is that clear?"

"One more question," announced Fang, and then asked, "What if Ozimbus shows up?"

"You have broadswords, don't you?" Bandit asked.

"Yes, but… Nikki has to face him."

Bandit furrowed his eyebrows. "Who planted that nonsense in your brain?"

"Uh…" Fang looked around awkwardly.

"Forget about it," Bandit waved his hand dismissively. "A spy came in yesterday saying he heard Ozimbus will be at the space station during the solar eclipse. It could just be a trap, but it's all the info we've got."

"I suppose that sounds nice," Fang grumbled.

"I'll come get you when the carrier arrives," Bandit announced. "Until then, you can do what you want, just don't stray too far from this room, Ok?"

"Sure!" said everyone simultaneously.

As Bandit walked out the door, Chaolin squealed, "Oh! This is so exciting! I don't think I can wait a whole hour for all this adventure to happen! I can't wait to get my first kill!"

Fang chuckled at Chaolin and then looked at Nikki and said, "Well, why don't we practice with our swords to pass the time?"

"Alright, but I'm not going down easy!" said Nikki, ready for a practice battle with Fang.


	21. Return to Diamond City

**21**

**Return to Diamond City**

Inside the transportation vehicles, Ailey and Rupie looked down at their home island in despair as they realized it wasn't the same as before at all, not one bit. Ailey could remember cutting through the forest to Diamond City with Nikki and Rupie, and now that entire forest was just a memory. Ailey could also remember how clear the sky and the ocean used to be, but now the sky was filled with smoke and other pollution, and the ocean was littered with trash. Ailey could also remember the tiny creek she once played in when she was little, but know it was just a sandy streak in the ground.

As Ailey and Rupie still looked down sadly at what became of their home island, Caruso walked up and said, "I know it's bad, but once we get rid of Skulblakia, we can rebuild Emerald Hill Island to its beautiful self again. I bet Chao World is suffering just the same, if not worse. I mean the Neutropolis area, not the NCPA military station."

"Yeah, I know" answered Ailey, doubts still clouding her head.

Ailey remembered how crystal clear the NCPA military station had looked when they returned from the space station. It hadn't changed a bit since they left on the warships. Ailey wondered what must be happening to the rest of Chao World, aside from the not-even-touched military station. Ailey then remembered that if they didn't stop the dark chao army, that untouched military station would vanish under the sea like it never existed.

Ailey's thoughts ended when Cassius, who was driving the ship, yelled, "Diamond City ahead!"

After the ship landed, not in Diamond City but in a field west of it, Ailey went up to Cassius and said, "Why did you park us right here?"

"It's because we can't have a huge battle in the city." Cassius paused, and then continued, "And besides, if we park a vessel like this in the middle of the city we'll be surrounded by dark chao before we can even open the exit ramp!"

"Ok, I get it," said Ailey, and as Cassius walked away, Ailey caught his attention again and said, "I don't know anything about war and fighting, being I'm a hero chao, so as my last deed of being leader, I assign you as leader, Cassius."

Cassius looked dumfounded and then a huge grin spread across his face. "You just made the best decision of your life, Ailey. Many dark chao will die tomorrow."

Ailey then went up to Rupie and said, "We're not leaders anymore, I gave the job to Cassius."

"Ok, that's fine with me" Rupie answered plainly as they walked down the ramp onto the grassy floor.

It was about nine o' clock at night, and the only reason Ailey could still see was because of the lights from Diamond City.

Ailey, looking at the grass, said, "At least the grass is still nice and green."

Rupie nodded in agreement, and then reminded her, "It won't be nice and green anymore once this battle's over."

Ailey just nodded sadly.

Ailey just sat down on a rock as she watched the battle supplies file out of the carrier. She saw neutral types of every kind imaginable, for one thing. All of them were wearing metal strips of armor on their bodies, arms, and legs, and some had battle helms on their heads, with fierce-looking spikes. Some of the chao held lanterns to light the way for the bigger vehicles to come.

There were at least a hundred tanks that drove out, and after them, a huge flat hovering vehicle came out with boxes of weapons on top of it. As soon as it stopped, chao of all sizes began to open the boxes and pass a weapon to everybody. The weapons were small laser guns like Nikki's, large-sized machine guns, like those of the dark normal types, and bazookas with dangerous electric balls of energy as bullets.

Another flat hover vehicle drove out, with about a hundred large wooden crates that said, DANGER, ANIMAL INSIDE.

Ailey walked up to a neutral fly type controlling the vehicle and asked, "What do we need dangerous animals for?"

The fly type smiled and answered, "The dark chao have giant black panthers with them, so I thought we should have an advantage over them by getting some trained battle wolves! They've been trained only to attack dark chao and panthers, so when we get into battle they should be pretty useful."

Confused as to how wolves would give any advantage in a battle that involved laser guns, Ailey looked at the fly type with intense judgment and then walked away. There were now no more items coming through the vehicle, and now some other chao who had no part in the battle was driving it away.

Ailey now noticed that some of the stronger types of chao were taking out the wolves. Ailey thought the wolves were pretty cute, except for when they would occasionally show their teeth at Caruso, who was a dark chao, and how their eyes glowed yellow in the dim light of the lanterns surrounding the area. The wolves' chain leashes were handed to some power types, who liked the job of caring for the dangerous animals, and began stroking their fur. The wolves closed their eyes and sat there like kings.

Ailey then saw Cassius talking to Caruso about something that looked important. She decided to go closer to hear the conversation.

Cassius started out by saying, "Caruso, we're short one tank driver."

Caruso then asked, "What happened to the one who drove it out of the carrier?"

"He was the one who took the carrier back to the station." Cassius replied.

"Oh… well that's stupid," Caruso muttered.

Cassius then brightened up and said, "Caruso, would you be kind enough to drive that tank?"

Caruso almost literally jumped around like a rabbit with excitement and then said, "Oh, would I ever! I've always wanted to drive a tank in battle! I don't care that they're low-quality and have windshields and self-destruct buttons! I'm so happy right now I could skin a cat! Oh, thank you Cassius!"

With that, Caruso ran at his top speed to the tank and jumped inside. Ailey was proud of Cassius, he was a great general. Not quite as godly as Nimbus, but good nonetheless. Ailey then remembered that she hadn't seen Nikki, Fang, and Chaolin yet. She wondered if they were stopped for anything and then missed the ride. Ailey wondered if they'd be coming later. The solar eclipse was in ten hours, so if they were going to come, it had to be soon.

Back at the NCPA station, Nikki had just finished his sword practice with Fang, and he was about to board the carrier to Skulblakia, until Nimbus ran up and stopped him.

Nikki said, "Hey, Nimbus! I thought you were supposed to be finding your best pilots for the space station! What's holding you up?"

Nimbus, sparkling like mad, looked at Nikki and said, "You _are _my best pilot!"

Nikki thought for a moment and said, "You really mean it?"

"She's waiting for you" Nimbus said, pointing at a shiny star-fighter with gigantic missile cannons and what looked like a cartridge that held dozens of missiles.

"Wow… I really love missiles… but Bandit told me to go to Zelbai and free the important prisoners. I can't disobey orders."

"What?" Nimbus scrunched his face. "Why would Bandit tell you to go to Zelbai? Our spy said Ozimbus will be at the space station during the eclipse, and you're supposed to face him!"

Nikki tilted his head. "That's right… I wonder why Bandit didn't catch the fallacy of his own orders."

"I guess we'll have to report him to King Kirtie after he's rescued so he can be fired," Nimbus replied.

"Yeah," Nikki nodded. "If you didn't come and stop me just now, Bandit would have just doomed the whole world. Everyone knows only I can kill Ozimbus. Just me and my broadswords."

"What was Bandit thinking? He's so stupid," Nimbus shook his head shamefully.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Nikki agreed.

"…Well, as general of the NCPA, I say you should disobey orders for the greater good of Chao World and fly with me into battle. In space."

"SPACE!?" Nikki exclaimed, eyes wide. He was so happy he could have exploded. "Thank you Nimbus! You're a real hero!"

And with that, after wishing Fang and Chaolin good luck on their rescue mission, ran off towards the fighter, ready for action and another duel with Emperor Ozimbus' cloak, which he knew was on the space station, waiting just for him.

Back at Emerald Hill Island, dawn was approaching asAiley and Rupie watched the NCPA prepare their assault formation. The wolf handlers were in the front, holding their chains, ready to let go at the first signs of battle. Behind the wolf handlers was the main part of the army, the NCPA warriors. The rest of the army was made up of tanks, which outlined the NCPA warriors, somewhat protecting them from any firing from the sides and the back.

Ailey looked at the moon in the east, which looked like it was waiting to jump the sun as soon as it rose over the horizon. With the moon so close to where the sun was supposed to rise in the next few minutes, only an idiot wouldn't notice that a solar eclipse was near.

Cassius walked up to Ailey and Rupie and asked, "Are you going to join us?"

Ailey hesitated and then thought about what awful things the dark chao had done with her home. Then, although she hated to battle, she answered, "Yes, I'll join you, for Emerald Hill Island's sake!"

"Me too!" was Rupie's response.

Cassius led them to the body of the army and said, "You only have to stay in formation until we are done with the charge, then when the main battle breaks out, feel free to run mad killing dark chao like it's a zombie apocalypse!"

"Ok, I'll do my best!" said Ailey, taking out her hook-shot and fastening it to her arm.

"Me too!" said Rupie again, taking out her staff and holding it defensively.

At that moment, a horn blew. The army looked in the direction ahead of them, where there was a long stretch of field, about a mile or two, and then a hill. Behind the hill, Scamper's Palace was visible. Everyone suddenly grew nervous as they knew the horn signaled the beginning of the Skulblakian march.

Cassius, in the front of the army, yelled back so everyone could hear, "It's time!"


	22. The Battle Begins

**22**

**The Battle Begins**

Nimbus was just explaining the battle plans to Nikki when Bandit called and said, "Nimbus! The solar eclipse is in three hours! We need you to get up in space before it's too late!"

"I'm on it!" was Nimbus's only response. Then he turned to Nikki and said, "When we get up there we will encounter thousands of fighters, so you need to keep watch all around you so they don't sneak up and shoot you down when you least expect them to. Got it?"

Nikki replied, "Yes Nimbus!"

"I also pinpointed the weaknesses of the space station using nothing but sheer logic. They're the small areas above and below the main body. If we get to those areas enough, the space station will collapse on its own weight. Got it?"

Nikki replied, "Yes Nimbus!"

"Ok Nikki, go ahead and start your fighter while I finish telling everyone about the weaknesses"

Nikki replied, "Yes Nimbus!" and turned his fighter on.

After the carrier landed at Skulblakia, Fang and Chaolin couldn't help wondering where all the dark chao went. Skulblakia was so barren and boring compared to the last time they were there. It was so quiet you could hear a leaf fall on the dry ground. The carrier landed about a hundred feet from Zelbai, so they didn't have much to walk.

As they started, Chaolin asked, "Since you were Ozimbus's closest friend and all, did you know about ZXY007?"

Fang answered, "I didn't know about ZXY007, but I had heard of the failed attempts of the six before it"

Chaolin then asked, "Were you evil like Ozimbus when you two were friends?"

Fang replied, "Of course not, that was the whole reason why Ozimbus threw me out in the first place! He had me captured and put me in jail with you and everyone else."

"That… sucks," Chaolin muttered, finding it hard to find which word to use.

"Come on Chaolin, the solar eclipse will catch up with us if we don't move faster," Fang said, gaining speed. "We have to hurry!"

"Wait up, Fang!" yelled Chaolin, beginning to run in the dawn light.

Ailey waited anxiously, watching the hill for any signs of dark chao. Ailey also happened to notice that the sun had risen above the hills and bathed the field in front of her in a golden light.

It wasn't until a minute later when she and the others in the army noticed black swelling on the hill, dotted with tanks. With the sun shining on it, the army literally looked like a sea of dark chao, with ice-burg-tanks.

Ailey whispered to Rupie, "How much more unorganized can they get?"

Rupie began laughing quietly and replied, "They can start floating around like there's no gravity."

Ailey chuckled, and then suddenly shut up when Cassius began giving orders.

"Prepare to fire!" Cassius yelled so everyone could hear, but not as to alert the incoming dark chao. "Front line, position your bayonets in front of you! Tank drivers, turn on the tanks and prepare to charge!"

Ailey looked at the army, which was completely over the hill now, and noticed it was twice the size of the NCPA army. She didn't think she could get any more nervous until she heard the familiar boisterous shouts of Abzilro.

"Halt!" Abzilro yelled, stopping the dark chao, then began taunting, "Hey! You stay out of our way! We're on a schedule!"

Cassius yelled, "We're here to stop you, Abzilro! We'll never let you deliver that cake to the NCPA military station!"

"Oh really?" Abzilro taunted. "Shall I just charge right over you? I see that you have the NCPA with you to stop me! I suppose it would be cruel and unusual to let you know that you're too stupid to realize that you've brought the NCPA straight towards its own DOOM!"

"Oh, shut up!" Cassius's retorted.

"Shut up?! You're telling ME of all chao to SHUT UP?!" Abzilro screeched at the top of his lungs, and then turned to his army. "Charge, men! CHARGE! Flatten them with all you've got!"

Cassius replied by saying to his army, "Fight like men! Charge!"

"But I'm not a man!" Ailey yelled in reply.

"Well you'd better learn to fight like one! Charge!" Cassius shouted.

Ailey ran along with the army, with the tanks rolling somewhere behind her. She noticed that the wolves were no longer leashed and that they were running ahead at full speed towards the dark chao, growling snarling, and gnashing their teeth. Ailey was now at a view close enough to the dark chao that she could see about thirty huge black panthers, also running ahead at full speed in front of the dark chao, charging straight at the wolves, hissing and roaring. Each panther was large enough to fit a chao inside its mouth with ease.

The gap between the two armies was depleted, as the wolves reached the panthers, pouncing them with all their body weight. As they scuffled with a flurry of teeth, claws, and fur, Cassius ordered, "Open fire!"

At that, Ailey fired her hook-shot at a panther who had trapped a wolf and was about to finish it. The hook-shot nailed the panther in the head, cracking its skull and killing it.

The dark chao also began firing as the two different armies intertwined to form a chaotic mob of shooting, slashing, and screaming chao of all kinds. The wolves now began attacking the dark chao, taking their weapons and throwing them on the ground before finishing them off. The panthers did the same, although since they were much bigger they just had to pounce, slash, and bite. Ailey fired her hook-shot at dark chao, also dodging lasers which came from every direction.

Ailey's hook-shot wasn't really a killing device, but it was enough to stun and possibly knock out the dark chao in her path. Except for that one panther of course, because that was just a lucky kill.

Ailey saw Rupie handling a group of dark chao with her staff. Rupie was a natural with her staff, twirling it around and swinging it in wide blows to knock out several dark chao at a time.

Suddenly, Ailey was flipping through the air over the battle. Ailey wondered why she was soaring, and then she remembered that a large explosion had occurred behind her several feet, sending her flying. She concluded that a tank bullet had landed behind her. She then collided with a dark power type, knocking the weapon out of its hands and stunning it. It was then that Ailey noticed that the dark power types in this battle were not holding maces but large rocket-propelled grenade launchers. It was about time the Skulblakian dark power types found an alternative to maces.

The dark power type then got up and scrambled for its weapon. Then it turned and stared at Ailey threateningly, and before it could aim and shoot, Ailey shot it in the eye with the hook-shot. The dark power type grabbed its eye and yelled in pain, while Ailey hijacked its rocket launcher and finished the job by shooting the loaded rocket at the wounded dark chao. She enjoyed it very much.

At Nimbus's order, Nikki flew out of the NCPA military station, along with forty other star-fighters, and angled his fighter upwards in order to go to space.

"Prepare to activate hyperdrive!" Nimbus ordered over the intercom.

Nikki put his hand on the lever which activated it. Hyperdrive was a speed about half of light-speed, which the chao used to get into space faster and to make fast getaways if they were about to be blasted with missiles or other space objects. Nikki remembered that the last time he was in space, Wacky had used hyperdrive to get away after Nikki had beaten him.

"Activate hyperdrive!" Nimbus yelled, and Nikki pulled the lever, as the engines on his fighter let out a blast of energy, propelling him forward and out of the atmosphere. When hyperdrive was over, they were in space, and heading towards the space station.

A minute later, Nimbus yelled, "Skulblakian fighters ahead!"

Nikki prepared to fire lasers at first sight of the fighters. Almost instantly, the fighters were upon them, as the NCPA star-fighters were flying through a tunnel of bright red lasers and Skulblakian fighters.

With the fighters buzzing around them, the NCPA reached the space station, which had five Skulblakian space freighters around it for protection. The freighters began firing their turrets at the NCPA, as more Skulblakian fighters poured out of the hangar in the space station's body.

Nimbus ordered, "Break formation! Destroy any Skulblakian obstacle in your way! You're on your own now!"

Nikki steered away from the other fighters as he was confronted with a space freighter and its share of Skulblakian star-fighters. He dove under the fighters and before they had time to chase him he circled up and shot them down from behind.

_It's a good thing Skulblakian fighters are slow compared to our fighters!_ Nikki thought as he shot down another fighter. _Plus I'm just really good at flying star-fighters. It's easy, anyone can do it._

To Nikki this brought back memories of one of his nightmares, the one about the fighters and the space station. Nikki wondered if his nightmares were true about the space station hurtling down to Mobius. It hadn't happened yet, but his nightmares were true about everything else he dreamed so far, so he had a right to expect it to start a crash course for Mobius. Nikki shook his head to stop himself from daydreaming when he remembered he was not asleep in a dream but in a real life space battle between good and evil. The fate of Chao World was in his hands.

As he was busy thinking about his dream, he had flown into a cloud of fighters. He shot at several and then dived under them and did some corkscrews to dodge the lasers shot at him, because it works every time AND looks amazing in the movies, and then he came up and found himself in front of a space freighter.

Nikki decided to skim the top of it, blasting the turrets, until he found a weak spot. He did just that, as he scanned the surface of the freighter meanwhile dismantling turrets by shooting at them. It was a good thing the turrets sucked at aiming and Nikki was such a great pilot. He came across a tractor-sized barrel-shaped shiny blue generator guarded by six turrets near the engines of the freighter. Nikki fired all of his missiles at the generator. When the explosions cleared, however, the generator was untouched, but the turrets had dissipated. With some annoyance, Nikki shot it with lasers a few times but it still didn't explode. Nikki, angry that he had finally encountered something he couldn't completely annihilate with a few shots, circled it a few times, firing at it and the fighters trying to stop him, until it finally it blew up like a barrel of gunpowder in a forest fire. At first nothing happened, but after a few seconds of waiting the engines in the back of the freighter began sputtering blasts of unorganized fire, instead of the normal steady release of energy necessary to propel the freighter forward. The engines soon began short-circuiting, unleashing bolts of electricity, and then one by one they self-destructed. As the engines exploded, the rest of the freighter began shooting out smoke and fire like geysers. Nikki new this would be a great time to evacuate, so he turned around and sped away. He watched his rear-view mirrors as the freighter sent out a shockwave and then self-destructed, catching several Skulblakian fighters in the fiery exhale. The shockwave reached Nikki, jolting and shaking the fighter, pushing it off course.

Nikki didn't panic as his fighter began to spin out of control. Before he knew it, a Skulblakian fighter, taking advantage of Nikki's problem, shot out one of the engines on Nikki's fighter, catching one of the wings on fire. Nikki knew he would survive as his fighter tumbled off in the direction of the space station. The cords of fate were bringing Nikki and Ozimbus together.

He tried to contact Nimbus on the intercom, but the intercom was blowing out smoke, which meant it was broken. Nikki then began screaming with pure joy as his fighter twirled nearer and nearer to the massive and overwhelming space station. Finally, Nikki assumed a meditative position as his fighter was about to crash into the space station and seal Nikki's fate once and for all.


	23. Secret Chamber

**23**

**Secret Chamber**

Inside the pyramid, Fang and Chaolin continued running through the countless rooms and staircases until they came across the hangar where they were before. This room, however, was not abandoned and dark chao-free. There were ten dark power types waiting for them. Fang pulled out his pistol and began firing away.

"Fang! Can't you tell they have guns instead of maces?!" yelled Chaolin. "Just shooting at them from far away won't work this time!"

Fang stopped firing when he realized that the power type guards indeed had rocket-propelled grenade launchers instead of maces, and then said to Chaolin, "Well, then! I guess there's only one thing we can do since we're outnumbered ten against two."

"And what's that?" Chaolin asked, exaggerating. "You're not going to suggest we let them blast us to pieces, are you?"

Fang looked at Chaolin with a serious look and replied, "No, I was going to suggest we run like men."

"But I'm not a man," Chaolin muttered.

"Well I suggest you learn to run like one, or you will be torn to pieces," Fang said flatly.

The dark chao began firing their rockets at the two chaos chao. Fang and Chaolin began running like men along the wall of the circular room. As the rockets hit closely behind them, they blew huge holes in the wall. They ran until they reached the entrance of the hallway that led to the throne room, where there was a dark chao guard, aiming at them. Without hesitation, Fang pulled out his gun with manly speed and fired at the guard before it could press the trigger to fire. It fell to the ground dead, and the two chaos chao jumped over it and into the hallway. They both simultaneously pulled the door shut, using the fallen guard's weapon to lock it in place. The other guards began pounding on the other side of the door, trying to enter without blowing up their door. The door was expensive and they didn't want to ruin it.

Fang and Chaolin walked up the countless stairs until they reached the gold door which led to the throne room. Fang, since he had seen it countless times, didn't care to look at the carvings on the door and went to open it.

As Fang pushed on it, Chaolin stopped him and said, "Don't open it yet! I'm looking at those beautiful carvings!"

Fang gave Chaolin a death glare, "Come on! We don't have all day! We need to rescue King Kirtie and the others in that chamber before the eclipse or something else horrible stops us."

"Oh, alright!" said Chaolin, annoyed.

Fang opened the door and walked inside with Chaolin shortly behind him.

The throne room was exactly as Fang remembered it. The reddish glow it naturally had, the massive throne with the fiery wall in front of it, and the many pillars on each side of the path. The path was still covered by the red carpet, as it has been for as long as Fang could remember.

"Where should we look first?" asked Chaolin, still looking in awe at everything around her.

"Let's just split up for now," Fang replied. "If you find something let me know."

Fang and Chaolin then went in opposite directions, scanning the room for anything suspicious. The first thing that caught Fang's eye was the timer hidden on the side of the wall.

_This must be the timer for the solar eclipse Nikki mentioned earlier, _Fang thought, and then he gasped at how little time there was until the eclipse.

The clock had a zero where the day slot was, and there was only one hour, fifty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds, counting down.

"Chaolin! We have less than two hours before the eclipse!" Fang yelled.

"Yeah, I know" was Chaolin's reply. "There's a timer over here too."

Fang then noticed a red button hidden on one of the pillars in the far corner. He had never known of the existence of the button, so he didn't know what it did. He examined it for a while. Fang eventually concluded that it wasn't a self-destruction button because it would have the word 'warning' or 'caution' above it. Not that the tank self-destruct buttons had the word 'warning' or 'caution' on them, but tanks were cheap anyway. A self-destruct button in the throne room belonging to the Emperor of Skulblakia would definitely have some sort of warning on it. Despite this logic, Fang hesitated before pressing it. When he finally did, became room got a lot darker.

"Hey Fang!" Chaolin's voice rang across the room in an echo. "Did you turn the fire wall off, or did it do that by itself?"

Sure enough, the wall of fire which used to be blocking the way to Ozimbus's throne was gone.

"I pressed the 'off' button," replied Fang to Chaolin. "Go see if you can find anything up there."

Chaolin then crossed where the fire used to be and began walking up the stairs which led to the throne. She inspected the throne, and then she scanned the walls.

She finally said, "There's nothing here."

"It's gotta be here somewhere," Fang muttered to himself, and then continued, "Bandit said it would be in here. He isn't the smartest chao in the universe but I really had a feeling he was right about this one."

"I wish he would have given us a clue," Chaolin said as Fang walked up the stairs to the throne.

"We should look harder," Fang said, as he looked around the throne area.

Fang was starting to have doubts as he looked around and behind the throne room and still found nothing. He then decided to look down, and was shocked to see skid marks on the floor behind the throne.

"Chaolin! Help me push the throne back!" Fang yelled, as he began to push on the throne. Chaolin quickly began to help, and after a while the throne was pushed back enough to reveal a staircase leading into a secret chamber.

"It looks dark down there" said Chaolin. "We should get a torch."

Fang looked judgmentally at Chaolin. "A torch? Are you serious?"

"…Yes?" Chaolin squirmed.

"Chaolin. This is 'Chao in Space,' not 'Chao in the Stone Age.' We use flashlights for times like this." Fang pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on.

"Ooooohhhh…" Chaolin's eyes widened. "Boy, I sure am stupid. How did I ever get a position to teach at Chao School?"

The two chaos chao walked down the staircase until they reached flat ground. They went through twists and turns until they came across an opening blocked by a wood fence.

"Great, now what? That torch sounds like a fabulous idea now, doesn't it?" Chaolin mocked.

Fang thought for a moment. As much as he hated flaunting the otherworldly powers he possessed as a chaos chao, he couldn't think of an option other than to use his mystical chaos chao powers. Chaolin, who was also a chaos chao, would also be able to help. It was definitely worth a shot.

"Chaolin! Hold my hand!" Fang shouted.

"Ew!" Chaolin squealed.

Fang glanced at her. "Are you a Chao School teacher or a first grader?"

Chaolin didn't even comment. She grabbed Fang's hand. Then they both concentrated and focused their mystic energies into one united force. A green aura surrounded them, giving them power, and then in one voice they shouted in unison, "Super Ultra Mega Chaos Chao Double Wrangler Attack Fist Punch Assault!"

They both rocketed towards the wooden fence and punched at it simultaneously with their free fists. The wooden fence was vaporized. They stopped holding hands and advanced into the next room.

It was a gigantic room, a room bigger than any they had seen in the pyramid so far. The room was not dark, either. It was the most lit-up room in the pyramid. The four red ovals on either side of the pyramid, Fang noticed, were actually gigantic windows for this secret room. The room was almost entirely covered in water about five inches in depth. The only part of the floor not covered by water was a narrow path that led to a shrine in the center of the room. The shrine, which was similar to a gigantic fountain, had tiny streams of water coming out of the sides and pouring into the water on the floor. On the top of the shrine was a bare circular platform with a lever switch on it.

Fang thought about going to pull it, and, without hesitation, said, "Chaolin, I'm going to pull that switch."

"Ok, I guess so," Chaolin replied, unsure.

Since the room was so large, it was a good long walk to the shrine. Once they reached the first step of the shrine, a metal door shut suddenly on where they first came from.

"Fang, I'm scared!" Chaolin whispered apprehensively. "What if it's a trap?"

"It's not a trap!" Fang shouted dramatically. "Why does it always have to be a trap? I know that lever will open a compartment leading to the prisoners. Everything will be fine."

At the top of the shrine, Fang reached for the switch, and then stopped. He looked around for anything nearby that could possibly hurt him. After reassuring himself of his safety, he quickly pulled the lever. Sure enough, a compartment opened in the ceiling, dropping down a cage full of imprisoned chao. King Kirtie, who was an oddly purple neutral power type, was asleep. Cloudy and Stratus, who was a hero run type, were wide awake, with sudden fear in their eyes.

"Ok, where's the key to this thing?" Fang began looking around.

"It's a trap! It's a trap!" Cloudy and Stratus flailed their arms like noodles. "Run! Before IT gets you!"

Fang sighed. "Why is it always a trap?"

The rope on the cage pulled it back up to the ceiling and the compartment closed again

"Told you it was a trap," Chaolin muttered, mad Fang hadn't listened to her.

"Yes, it's a trap! Of course it's a trap!" Fang retorted.

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound and the floor shaking told Fang where IT was… right behind them, of course.

Fang and Chaolin turned around to see a menacing beast standing no less than fifteen feet from them. The creature's body was similar to a lobster, but with no tail, and four massive sturdy legs attached. This creature also had two huge arms with lobster-like claws, with which the creature could crack anything in half. The creature's head looked like that of a crocodile but with a shorter snout. In all, this creature was about twenty feet tall.

Fang and Chaolin stared at the creature stunned. Chaolin turned to Fang and with fear in her eyes and squeaked, "Now what do we do?"


	24. The Cannon

**24**

**The Cannon**

Nimbus fired constantly at what he thought was the weakness to the space station. Turrets were firing at him like crazy, not to mention the fighters picking on him also. The parts of the space station that were supposed to be the weak points weren't giving any signs of collapsing any time soon, and time was running out. The solar eclipse was drawing nearer and nearer; every minute wasted on shooting at something virtually invincible was a minute closer to the doom of Chao World.

Nimbus circled around, and as his fighter was positioned in the direction of a space freighter, he noticed it exploded violently into billions of pieces, shrapnel, shards, plates, rods, junk, trash, pipes, and dead dark chao.

_Good job Nikki _Nimbus said in his mind; he new the freighter was taken out by Nikki because only Nikki could take out a freighter that quickly at the start of an epic space battle.

Nimbus was about to direct his attention towards the space station again when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, a comm. satellite. This comm. satellite was charging at full speed towards the battle. What confused Nimbus even more was that the comm. satellite was studded with turrets, which began firing shining green lasers at the space station.

_They just had to give those comm. satellites minds of their own! _Nimbus muttered to himself, wondering why the satellite chose to be a hero and attempt to participate in a space battle that was for pros only. _That satellite is going to get itself destroyed!_

Even worse, on closer inspection, Nimbus noticed this was no ordinary comm. satellite. This one was the chief satellite, the one which gave all of the other satellites, which were destroyed now, their transmission signals. This satellite also happened to be the only one left, so if it was destroyed, the two islands would never get their communication back. They would have to build another chief satellite, which cost a lot of time, money, and resources, and nobody in Chao World or Emerald Hill Island had the stuff for that. The satellite was ruining the lives of everyone by sacrificing itself to be epic in a dangerous space battle.

Nimbus watched as the comm. satellite grew nearer and nearer to the space station. Nimbus was surprised that the fighters and space freighters didn't fire at it. He was also surprised that the comm. satellite managed to hit a space freighter's weak spot, dismantling it within seconds. Not bad for a stupid satellite.

_Why aren't the dark chao firing at that thing? _Nimbus wondered, confused. _It's like they're afraid of it!_

Nimbus steered his fighter, and then gasped in horror as he saw the answer to his mental question reveal itself. The space station was opening the door that held the gigantic cannon inside. Nimbus knew that the comm. satellite, no matter how brave it was, would soon be annihilated if it didn't get away from the battle fast.

Nimbus then got an idea.

_If the space station is invincible from the outside, then I'll just have to blast it from the inside! _Nimbus was legitimately stoked that the satellite showed up now. Its heroic deeds would go down in history as the bait and distraction necessary for the space station to willingly reveal its innards.

Nimbus pushed on the throttle at full speed as he sped towards the gigantic cannon, which was extending from the depths of the space station. Nimbus noticed four rod-like scepters flanking the sides of the cannon, which harnessed the energy absorbed by the cannon so it could fire extra-powerful lasers. Nimbus assumed that destroying the scepters would be the best way to mess with the cannon, and possibly even destroy it altogether.

Nimbus began firing rapidly at the scepters, which began glowing blue as the cannon absorbed energy. As he flew by the cannon he succeeded in breaking one of the scepters before the huge cannon fired a studly large blue laser. Just as Nimbus thought the satellite would be reduced to stardust by the laser, he saw that the laser had missed. How about that miraculous coincidence?

Nimbus didn't waste time. He figured giant cannons that absorbed energy had to rest before firing again to avoid overheating, so he took the opportunity to take out another scepter with a barrage of lasers. With two scepters remaining, the Skulblakian fighters took their attention off of the other NCPA star-fighters and began shooting at Nimbus. Nimbus dodged the millions of lasers around him, taking a few shots like a trooper, and shot down some of the fighters in the process. Nimbus, after a short struggle with the fighters, dismantled the third scepter, just as the fourth began glowing blue and the cannon prepared to fire a second time at the comm. satellite.

Nimbus figured the dark chao controlling the cannon wouldn't let the laser miss a second time, so he believed he only had one more shot. He began firing at the fourth scepter, but the fighters constantly tried to stop him from destroying their cannon.

A few NCPA fighters had caught on to what Nimbus was doing and had come to help out. Nimbus noticed two of the fighters were helping him shoot at the scepter, while some others focused on distracting the Skulblakian fighters. One of the NCPA fighters helping Nimbus was shot down by an enemy fighter, which was an unfortunate loss, but Nimbus ignored it and kept his focus on the task ahead of him.

Suddenly, Nimbus's fighter was critically hit, and he began spiraling down into the path of the cannon's firing range. Nimbus franticly pushed buttons and pulled levers, trying to repair his fighter, and succeeded just in time, as the cannon was ready to fire. Nimbus pulled up and out of firing range just in time to avoid the cannon's big blue laser. However, since three scepters had already been destroyed, the cannon's aim was off again and the laser missed the satellite. Nimbus was glad he had been overestimating the cannon's accuracy the whole time.

Now with plenty of time to spare, Nimbus dodged lasers from attacking fighters and shot down a few that were between him and the fourth scepter of the cannon. Nimbus felt like a god as he pressed the striped black and yellow button on his control panel, sending a missile homing in towards the fourth scepter. On contact, the scepter sent out a shockwave and exploded.

As the cannon began trying to absorb energy for a third shot at the satellite, the four scepters were unable to contain the absorbed energy. This caused the entire cannon to overload with electric energy, which subsequently resulted in it giving off bolts of electricity and shockwaves in every direction. The base of the cannon exploded with massive force, tearing the barrel of the cannon off and sending it hurtling away. The barrel and the shrapnel from the broken scepter parts fell towards the atmosphere, where they caught fire and disintegrated into particles of dust.

Nimbus and the other remaining NCPA fighter pilots yelled in triumph as they watched the barrel of the cannon disappear into flames as it entered the atmosphere.

The celebration ended as the space station, the fighters, the comm. satellite, and even Mobius itself grew dark. Nimbus realized with horror that the solar eclipse was upon him. He turned to see the moon begin its trek over the sun, bathing the space battle with an evil hue of purple. Nimbus knew that his fighters didn't have long before they lost power completely, so he used the intercom to order his NCPA fleet to retreat.

"All forces, head for the moon!" Nimbus ordered. "We'll land there and wait out the eclipse. Hurry!"

All of the NCPA fighters fled the battle at the space station and flew towards the black moon. There were twenty-two of the original forty fighters left. Nimbus also noticed the comm. satellite came to its senses and retreated the battle. It wasn't afraid of the big huge cannon in the least, but of the solar eclipse and the havoc it would bring it was rightfully scared to the point of peeing its pants. Or at least it would have been if it had pants to pee in. And a bladder with which to pee in said pants. Regardless, the point has been made.

All Nimbus could hope now was that the rest of his friends on Mobius would succeed in their missions in the final battle against Skulblakia, and that Nikki would succeed in his mission to defeat the evil Emperor Ozimbus' horrifying overpowered death-defying cloak of mass destruction, and maybe even discover where Ozimbus hides his ice cream.


	25. Solar Eclipse

**25**

**The Solar Eclipse**

Ailey had been fighting for almost three hours now and she was tiring out. She could also tell by the look on her allies' faces that they weren't feeling any different. She was tired of hearing the sounds of war, the tanks firing, the guns shooting, the deafening explosions, and the sounds of animals fighting and dying. By now the wolves had been completely killed off, and only three panthers remained. Of course this made total sense, since the panthers were enormous and could hold their own even when shot several times with lasers. The wolves were far more ordinary and easier to pick on.

It looked as if the NCPA would throw an easy win over this one. The dark chao army had shrunken greatly since the start of the battle, and the NCPA had only lost a few hundred. Ailey thought about finding Caruso's tank so maybe she could get inside and see how tanks work. As if the middle of an important fight was a good time to find a friend and distract him from the battle by asking ridiculous questions about cheesy tank controls that someone like Nikki could probably figure out in less than two seconds.

Ailey decided to go look for Caruso anyway until a dreaded sound broke over the battlefield. The sound of thousands of Skulblakian fighters was growing louder and louder. The nervous faces on the NCPA and the evil grins of the dark chao told Ailey that something was about to happen.

_A couple of fighters? What's so bad about some fighters? I mean, besides the fact that they totally have flight advantage and could bomb the hell out of us if they chose, _Ailey thought to herself, until the sky grew darker. Ailey looked up, and almost froze in position. Almost. Not quite, she was still moving a little bit, so she wasn't completely frozen, but she was pretty darn close to being completely frozen. The dark purple moon was halfway over the sun, bathing the battlefield in a cursed purple glow. It wasn't long before the NCPA weapons ceased to work. Ailey tried firing her hook-shot, but it wouldn't move. The soldiers tried firing their guns and tanks, but nothing happened. In fact, the tanks shut down completely. The only thing that the NCPA had that still worked was Rupie's wooden staff, which actually wasn't half bad given it had the power to annihilate twenty-five turrets in fifty-one seconds.

Almost simultaneously to the weapon blackout, a black cloud of Skulblakian fighters appeared from the direction of Diamond City. They reminded Ailey of the first time she saw the fighters at Diamond City weeks before, but she highly doubted they were coming this time around to drop warning papers.

"Retreat!" Cassius yelled to his warriors.

All at the same time, the tank drivers jumped out of their broken tanks and ran, and the warriors dropped their weapons and ran.

Abzilro ordered his army, "Follow them! Make them suffer! Let no one escape! Filthy neutral and hero chao! I am ABZILRO! Fear me! Aaaaaahahahahahahahaha!"

The Skulblakian warriors began following the NCPA by land and air. The fighters caught up to the NCPA but instead of firing lasers at them, they dropped bombs on them. Since it was a solar eclipse, the bomb explosions created enormous craters in the ground and killed scores of soldiers with every blow. The Skulblakian tanks drove twice as fast as they normally did, making it easy to keep up with the retreating army, and their tank shots had the same effects as the fighters' bombs. The tanks worked on shepherding the retreating NCPA army into a dense group so that they were easier to take out en masse. It was total chao slaughter. To Ailey, it looked as if the war was at an end.

Fang fired rapidly at the creature standing before him. Although the lasers did little more than annoy massive prison guard, Fang kept shooting at it anyway to keep it from charging at them. It wasn't long before it grew dark and Fang's gun ceased working.

"Damn it, out of ammo!" Fang spat.

Chaolin, looking outside at the cause for the darkness, said, "No, Fang! The solar eclipse! It's here!"

Fang looked out the window and saw the moon slowly moving over the sun. Then he looked at his laser cartridge and saw that he did have ammo, it was just that his gun stopped working.

Just then, the beast roared loud enough to make Fang and Chaolin cover their ear holes, and charged. Fang and Chaolin jumped out of the way as the creature ran past and crashed into the wall behind them. It let out a roar of frustration and charged after them again. It began swatting at Fang and Chaolin with its claws, trying to either club them or pinch them into total oblivion. It wasn't long before Fang and Chaolin were cornered. The creature closed in on them, ready to make the finishing blow. The only thoughts coursing through Fang and Chaolin's minds were those of self-condemnation centered on failing to save the citizens of Chao World and Emerald Hill Island because they couldn't defeat a stupid crab monster.

Nikki opened his eyes, not knowing if he was dead or alive. His star-fighter had crashed through a window in the massive space station a while ago. Nikki went on to assume that he was definitely alive, because it was unlikely that heaven, hell, Hades, Nirvana, or any otherworldly afterlife place resembled the inside of a space station.

Nikki got out of his shattered cockpit to look at the damage to his star-fighter. It was no longer silver, but it was a tattered gray. One of the engines was missing, and there was smoke and cables where it used to be. The cockpit was just a pile of glass, and the whole rest of the fighter was dented in every way imaginable.

_No way this will ever be fixed _Nikki thought angrily as he looked at his broken fighter. _Whoever did this will pay. I hope they survive this fight so I can track them down after the war and force them to pay for this damage. Unacceptable._

He then noticed something on the floor. As he went to pick it up, he noticed it was his handgun, which had fallen out of his bag during the crash. As Nikki picked it up to put it in his bag, he noticed the carving in the handle. It said 'Never give up without a fight'. This time Nikki had to meditate on the saying for a very long time to calm himself down. Once he was finished, however, he felt ready to take on an army.

Just then, he caught sight of a movement in the corner of his eye.

_I'm being watched! _Nikki thought.

Just then, he caught movement again, but on the other side of the room. Nikki didn't like this at all. He liked knowing where everything was, and not knowing who or what was in the room with him made him feel very awkward. He stood waiting and listening, until he saw more movement, but it was closer now. It appeared to be a shadowy blur with a disturbing presence. A while later he saw it slip itself into a large purple double-door not far from the crashed fighter.

Nikki walked carefully to the door and looked at it. There were many familiar carvings decorating the glossy purple metal. It wasn't long before he knew what he was facing.

_This looks exactly like the door to Ozimbus's throne room! It must be him!_

"You guessed right, Nikki" a dark voice said from behind.

Nikki turned to see Emperor Ozimbus himself standing right behind him, gleaming smile and all. Nikki choked when he realized that Ozimbus was also wearing his trusty evil cloak. Just as Nikki was unsheathing his swords, Ozimbus pooped a pellet and teleported himself away. Nikki felt disappointed for not drawing his swords fast enough.

He then looked back towards the door. It had a sticky-note posted on it, with a message written with blood. Nikki took the note off of the door and read it. It said:

I'm in this room.

Try and defeat me if you wish

To die

Emperor Ozimbus

Nikki then drew his swords and made sure they were ready. He opened the door slightly and stepped inside.

The room Nikki had stepped inside was a vast room with many features. The room was shaded a dark purple, giving it a cursed look. The metal balconies on the walls were connected to the ground by staircases, and the big, long, table in the center looked like a war planning table. In the very back of the room was a huge window through which Nikki could see Skulblakian and NCPA fighters engaged in the battle for Chao World, and the occasional explosion from when a shiny red or green laser hit its mark on one of the fighters.

Nikki looked around cautiously, but could see no sign of Ozimbus.

_How confusingly evil can this guy's cloak get? _Nikki thought to himself apprehensively.

Suddenly, Nikki felt a dark presence wash over him, like he was being watched. Nikki never remembered a time when he felt this weak. He felt as if he was stabbed through the chest with a double edged sword just smelted from the hottest furnace.

"Huhuhahahahaha! Looking for me?" a voice said from above.

Nikki looked up to see Ozimbus standing, swords drawn, on a balcony above him.

That second, the door slammed shut and thirty-four locks instantly bolted the door, thereby sealing Nikki's fate. He then faced Ozimbus, taking a stance with his swords drawn.

Ozimbus replaced his smug grin with a look of anger as he flared his cloak like a cape and shouted, "This ends NOW!"

Nikki jumped back as Ozimbus jumped from the platform and went for a head-stabbing attack. Ozimbus landed unharmed, but his swords were stuck in the ground. Nikki took the opportunity to slash at him. Ozimbus threw a pellet into Nikki's face, shrouding his vision, and giving Ozimbus enough time to pull his swords out of the ground. When the smoke cleared, Ozimbus charged at Nikki faster than any dark fly type had ever run before, and stuck his swords out in front. Nikki jumped over him to dodge, and then swiped at his head, but missed. Ozimbus then began slashing his swords madly at Nikki, who deflected every blow. Nikki swung at Ozimbus, attempting to do damage to his arm, but Ozimbus blocked him.

"You've gotten better," Ozimbus complimented with a steady grin.

"No thanks to you!" Nikki fired back, striking Ozimbus furiously with his swords.

Suddenly, all grew dark. Nikki and Ozimbus stopped their fighting and looked out the window to see the moon begin its takeover on the sun. While Nikki watched horrified, Ozimbus began to laugh as his entire body swelled with power. The scary cloak glistened with dark sparkly energy and billowed epically on its own. Nikki had never been more afraid in his life. He barely even dared to look at Ozimbus' cloak after the solar eclipse had given him ten thousand times more power than he had before.

While Nikki was distracted, Ozimbus speedily kicked Nikki in the crotch, sending him flying into the wall at a ferocious speed.

Laughing, Ozimbus said, "It's over, Nikki. There's nothing more for you. I finish you now!"

Before Ozimbus could react, Nikki jumped to his feet and dodged Ozimbus's finishing blow and knocked him on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. Ozimbus fell to the floor with a frustrated grunt.

"How's that for clown karate?" Nikki rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and prepared to finish him off.

"I'm not finished with you yet," Ozimbus said as he levitated to his feet and then teleported to the other side of the room.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Nikki asked annoyed, ready for more sword action.

"You'll need more than your swords to stop me now! Huhuhahahahaha!"

At that, Ozimbus concealed his entire being in the cloak, rose a few feet off the ground and floated in place, and then began spinning like a tornado, going faster and faster, fizzing and popping with dark energy all the while. Nikki shouted a battle cry and ran to attack Ozimbus while he was charging, but right before Nikki reached him Ozimbus' cloak unleashed a dark lightning attack at Nikki, sending him hurtling into a wall hard enough that the impact dismantled a staircase to one of the balconies.

Nikki was too stunned to move as Ozimbus alighted on the floor and closed in on him. _Now what do I do?_


	26. Ailey's Finest Hour

**26**

**Ailey's Finest Hour**

Ailey watched sadly as she and her surviving friends were being captured by the overpowering Skulblakian troops and were being loaded into space freighters to be taken to prison. There were many dead chao scattered around, and Ailey was shocked and saddened to see that Papoose and Caruso were among them. The NCPA survivors were disappointed beyond belief, having failed their mission and leaving Chao World and Emerald Hill Island vulnerable to Ozimbus's attack. Cassius was the most disappointed out of all of them, feeling depressed and upset that he had led his army and friends into such disaster.

Ailey was being handcuffed by a dark power type along with Rupie. She then began to hear the dark power type escorting her to the freighter start up a conversation with the other power type escorting Rupie.

"So, Chacky!" Ailey's power type began. "Gotten a good amount of salary lately?"

Rupie's power type, apparently called Chacky, replied, "No, I haven't. Ozimbus never appreciates great work when he sees it."

"I actually was wondering if other dark chao get a higher salary than I do." Ailey's power type replied. "Mine's only five bucks a month. Talk about rotten."

"Wow, Chaofun!" Chacky replied, and then continued, "Mine's way worse, a whopping four bucks a month! Maybe when we return to the pyramid with all these prisoners we can get a raise or something. Do you think Emperor Ozimbus would care at all?"

Ailey's power type, Chaofun, replied, "There's no telling what that character will do next. He's always up to something, wearing that cloak!"

Ailey then got an extraordinary idea, and it involved getting involved with Chacky and Chaofun's conversation.

She then looked up at Chaofun, who was walking her to the space freighter, and said, "Chaofun, I couldn't help but think about your salary problem."

Chaofun looked down at Ailey confused and said, "What would you know about our salary problems, punk?"

Ailey replied, "I know you won't be getting a raise for us prisoners, and it's because Ozimbus doesn't care about you."

"Shut the hell up!" Chacky retorted. "You don't know anything, you're just a prisoner!"

Ailey, acting frustrated, said, "I'm not finished yet. Ozimbus doesn't give you guys or any of your other soldier friends high salaries because he doesn't care about you. He just wants to use you as tools to take over Chao World, and then when it's all over he'll probably fire you and take all the glory for himself, and pin all the badges and awards of honor you deserve right onto his cloak! Next thing you know, YOU'LL be the prisoners!"

Chaofun beat Ailey. "You preach lies, hero chao!"

"No, I'm serious!" Ailey replied, recovering from the beating and acting serious. "If he did care about you he'd give you a salary like no other salary you've ever even touched! He'd maybe even give you ice cream!"

Chaofun and Chacky gasped. They exchanged glances. Then Chacky whispered, "Maybe we should ask Ozimbus for ice cream when we're done. We deserve it."

Chaofun nodded.

Ailey sighed. "But he won't give you any ice cream because you're nothing but a bunch of useless pawns!"

Chacky beat Ailey. "Shut up!"

Ailey shook it off. "Guys, I'm only concerned for your welfare. Ozimbus will never give you ice cream, it's an established fact of life. If you want ice cream, you'll have to join Chao World and Emerald Hill Island in the fight against Ozimbus."

"That's a stupid idea," Chaofun retorted.

"Yeah," Chacky nodded. "I bet Kirtie doesn't give you any ice cream either. You're just making stuff up so we don't put you in prison."

"I'm not making this up, I promise! Kirtie gives me…" Ailey paused to think of a decently high number, "Over nine thousand pounds of ice cream per month. Sometimes higher."

"Over nine thousand!?" Chaofun and Chacky stared dumfounded at Ailey, thinking of what they could do with so much ice cream.

"Exactly, how do you do you get such a high salary?" asked Chacky, anxiously.

"You join us against Emperor Ozimbus, duh," Ailey blurted out. "When the war's over and Kirtie's free, we'll have an ice cream party. Everyone who helped out in the war will be invited. But any chao who were on Ozimbus' side and didn't help us won't get any. They won't even be invited. So if you want ice cream you'd better make up your minds quick, because this gig is almost over."

Chaofun and Chacky narrowed their eyes at her, and then did a quick huddle talk. Afterwards Chaofun said, "We've considered what you've said about the ice cream salary and the ice cream party. It's true that Ozimbus hogs all the ice cream for himself. We both really love ice cream, and we have wives and children back at Skulblakia who also love ice cream, and, well, our families aren't doing well on food, so, we've decided… uh… wait… what did we decide?"

Chacky rolled his eyes and finished for him, "We'll join you against Ozimbus, but only if we get paid handsomely with ice cream."

Ailey said, acting happy, "Oh, great decision, guys! I have some orders for you now."

"What is it?" asked Chacky.

"I need you to spread the word about the ice cream party to the other dark chao. Tell them that only chao who fight for Chao World and Emerald Hill Island will be invited, and form a riot against Ozimbus' rule," Ailey commanded. Then she remembered something and added, "Don't forget to inform your troops in Skulblakia and the space station too!"

"We'll do it!" Chacky and Chaofun said as they unhooked Ailey and Rupie from their handcuffs and ran off to some other guards, spreading the word.

"Wow! Ailey!" Rupie said with a stunned expression on her face. "You really did it this time!"

"Yeah, thanks! I thought of that all on my own!" replied Ailey, smiling happily at what she just did. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Now we'd better make sure there's an ice cream party after the war or we'll be skinned alive."

Rupie gulped and nodded.

The two hero chao watched as dark chao after dark chao unshackled their prisoners and went off spreading the news. It wasn't long before the entire battlefield of dark chao had joined the NCPA and began using the solar eclipse's power to call their faraway guard buddies to tell them glad tidings of great joy. For the first time since the war's beginning, Ailey felt peace and harmony begin to settle in her heart as she watched the dark chao and neutral chao working together to call any warrior they knew was involved in the war and tell them the good news. Ailey looked over the field, thinking the war may finally be won at last. There's no force in heaven or on Mobius that more powerfully brings about peace and unity than the possibility of an international ice cream party.

The mighty prison guard roared in triumph as it stared menacingly at its trapped prey. As it approached, Fang could only hope for a miracle, or that maybe Nikki would succeed in his mission, or Ailey and Rupie in their mission. Fang sincerely hoped that even though he and Chaolin would be annihilated by this monster, Nikki or someone would find a way to make things right again, and to save the trapped prisoners in the chamber.

The prison guard attacked. It clubbed Fang and Chaolin across the room. Then it ran after them and clubbed them again. It began hitting them back and forth and chasing them around, roaring with glee. Fang and Chaolin were completely helpless. They received many injuries.

When the beast got bored and raised its clawed arm for the kill, the steel door blocking the exit to the chamber was blasted to smithereens, and a dozen dark chao, mostly dark run types, came storming in with laser guns, ready to fire.

"Oh, well," Chaolin said weakly. "Here come some dark chao to watch us die. Typical."

The dark chao in the front, a dark run type, said, "Don't fear us! We're on your side!"

"Wait what?" Fang and Chaolin muttered at the same time.

The monster, angry that the newcomers had interrupted its fun, turned its attention to the dark chao. It roared furiously and stomped its way towards them.

"Get ready!" announced the run type, as he aimed his gun at the creature.

The other dark chao followed his lead.

Just as the creature was about to flatten the dark chao, the dark run type yelled in command, "Fire!"

The dark chao fired continuous blasts of dark energy from their weapons, taking advantage of the enormous power enabled by the solar eclipse, at the creature. All of the blasts hit their mark, sending the creature tumbling through the air, shrieking, and into one of the massive red windows. The window shattered on contact, while the beast continued soaring, and began rolling down the side of the pyramid, gaining speed, until it crashed to the floor with a gut-wrenching crackling sound.

Fang, Chaolin, and their new dark chao allies looked out the shattered window to see the monster sprawled out by the base of the pyramid, dead. Fang wondered how such a miracle could have happened, that some random dark chao would come and rescue them from their prison guard, only seconds from what would have been their hideous not-so-PG-rated deaths. Fang thought on as he stared at the limp figure several hundred feet down the metallic slope of the pyramid.

Nikki stared horrified at Ozimbus' cloak as it charged up for a finish-off shadow attack, trying think of how he could get himself out. He managed to get up just as Ozimbus fired the blast and dove out of the way as the shadowy bolt of lightning struck the wall, exploding violently.

Nikki charged at Ozimbus, using the shockwave from the explosion to propel him faster, and kicked him in the head. Ozimbus toppled over, but soon got up. Ozimbus slashed at Nikki with his swords, as Nikki dodged and blocked. Ozimbus then threw one of his swords at Nikki, but it missed. Nikki, distracted, looked back to see where the sword landed, and Ozimbus punched him in the side of the face with his sword-less hand, sending Nikki soaring into the wall. Nikki tried to get up, but he couldn't. He was almost sure he was paralyzed from the brute strength of Ozimbus's fist. Nikki looked up at Ozimbus as he concealed himself in his cloak and began charging up for the final shadow attack. Nikki could do nothing but watch as doom grew nearer and nearer and Ozimbus' cloak span, sparkled, and fizzed with pure evil energy.

Suddenly, the purple door blocking the exit was demolished as countless amounts of dark chao charged into the room. They all aimed at Ozimbus and fired at him with super-powered machine guns. The unexpected attack caused Ozimbus to break concentration, and the force of the assault flung him across the room. The cloak protected Ozimbus from being critically hit, however. Once he landed he stood up furiously and said, "You demons! How dare you interrupt me while I'm in the middle of a battle, much less shoot at me? Do you have a death wish!?"

"Sorry but not sorry, we don't take orders from you anymore!" a dark fly type, much like Ozimbus but a lot smaller, replied in a feminine voice.

_ A lady dark chao? Call me sexist but that's a first! _Nikki thought in awe.

"You bloody traitors! You're asking for it! Get out of my sight before I unleash my fury on you!" Ozimbus yelled rashly.

"No," the fly type replied calmly. The army behind her had their guns fixed on Ozimbus.

"AAAAAHHH!" Ozimbus concealed himself in his cloak and began charging up for a shadow attack. The girl dark fly type crept away from the others towards Nikki. She put a drop of something in Nikki's mouth.

"It's a max revive, it'll give you all your strength back," The fly type said calmly.

"Thanks" Nikki replied, after swallowing the drop. The other dark chao stood their ground, watching Ozimbus charge up for the attack meant for them. When Ozimbus' cloak fired, the lightning bounced off of a force field around the dark chao army, sending tendrils of dark lightning in every direction, destroying what remained of the balconies and the war planning table.

When Ozimbus finished the attack and realized that he had failed to annihilate the traitors, he began cursing and cussing like there was no end.

Nikki got up, feeling much better, and asked the fly type who fed him the max revive, "Why are you helping me?"

"It's a long story… well, not really. We just want to go to the ice cream party after the war."

"Ice cream party?" Nikki tilted his head, and then looked at Ozimbus. "What's he doing?"

"Rage-quitting," She replied with large humorous eyes. "If Ozimbus gets really frustrated, not only will his aim be horrible, but he'll be so full of anger that he'll just stand there shouting. He won't even fight back."

"Oh, sweet." Nikki took a pistol from one of the nearby dark chao and shot Ozimbus in the face. He was killed instantly.

All of the dark chao, eyes wide and jaws dropped, stared at Nikki. Then Ozimbus. Then Nikki again.

"What?" Nikki said, confused. "Did I do something wrong?"

The female dark fly type spoke in disbelief, "You… killed him… just like that…"

"Umm, yeah. Looks that way." Nikki nodded.

Just then, Ozimbus' cloak, which was still imbued with unholy powers, separated itself from Ozimbus' dead body, spun around in the air for a second as if to taunt its audience, and then teleported away in a brilliant flash of darkness.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Damn that cloak," Nikki muttered.

"Psh, who cares? You killed Ozimbus!" the dark fly type celebrated. "You're our hero. You destroyed our dictator! All hail Nikki! For destroying the one who enslaved us into this war! Ice cream for everyone!"

Nikki yelled in triumph as the dark chao all around him cheered and celebrated, dancing and prancing and frolicking around. Nikki had never remembered feeling this relieved and excited in his entire life. The war was over. Emperor Ozimbus was dead! The war was over!


	27. Crash Course

**27**

**Crash Course**

After several minutes of celebration, Nikki pulled out his phone and called Bandit.

"Mission accomplished Bandit!" Nikki said, excitedly. "Emperor Ozimbus is no more!"

"Great job Nikki! I knew you could do it!" Bandit replied, congratulating him.

"No thanks to you though! You told me to go to the pyramid city of Zelbai even after you said Ozimbus would be in the space station. We'd all be screwed by now if I followed your orders."

Bandit was silent for a while. "Well… um… do you know how Nimbus is doing?"

"No, I don't. But he can take care of himself, I'm not worried."

"Ok, I'll try contacting him," Bandit said, and then continued, "Your job now is to get out of that space station as soon as possible! I wouldn't want you inside when Nimbus decides to give the final blow!"

"Alright, Bandit! I'll do my best!" Nikki said, putting away the phone.

"What did he say?" asked the dark fly type.

"He said that we need to get out of the space station before it blows up," Nikki said firmly.

The fly type stifled some laughter. "This space station can't blow up. It was built with the power of friendship. But I can show you the way to the main hangar. There's a freighter in there we can take to get out, if you'd like. Oh! And in case you're wondering, my name's Midnight!"

"I wasn't wondering, and that's a stupid name," Nikki said flatly.

Midnight looked dejected for a few seconds, and then shrugged. "Well, come on, this way!"

Nikki, following Midnight and her squad of other dark chao, wondered what in the world Nimbus was doing out in space. He hadn't felt any sudden jolts or anything, which meant that the space station probably really was built with the power of friendship. As a matter of fact, around the time he was celebrating, he didn't see any battle activity out the window at all.

_Maybe they wiped each other out?_ Nikki thought. _Nimbus is ok though. He's a god._

It wasn't long before the group reached the main hangar.

"The freighter's just over there," Midnight said, pointing. "I've gotta do something over here. I'll be right back"

Nikki, instead of going over to the freighter, decided to watch Midnight. She was walking over to a switch on the wall with glass protecting it. She slammed the glass with her fist and pulled the lever.

Suddenly, red lights began flashing, and voice on the intercom began shouting, "RED ALERT! RED ALERT! AN EVACUATION OF THE AREA HAS BEN ISSUED! REPEAT, AN EVACUATION OF THE AREA HAS BEEN ISSUED!"

As Midnight came back, Nikki asked, "What'd you do?"

Midnight replied, "We're not the only dark chao who switched sides for the party. We _all _did. So what better way to assemble and leave the space station than to just evacuate everyone at once?"

"Makes sense to me," said Nikki as he began to notice every door leading to the hangar was spewing dark chao.

As Nikki ran towards the freighter with Midnight close behind, he noticed a familiar figure step out onto the freighter's loading ramp. Of all creatures on the face of the galactic spatial plane, Nikki was disappointed that it just _had_ to be Wacky and his group of Wacky Wavers.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" Wacky said with a smug little grin on his face. "This is OUR freighter, so get lost!"

"Wacky! Be reasonable!" Midnight yelled out. "We need to get all of the dark chao off of the space station or we'll miss the ice cream party! Please let us in!"

Wacky laughed in his annoying way, and then rasped, "I don't care about you and your side-switching companions! I'll have you know that my Wavers and I are still loyal to Ozimbus and won't let any traitors escape!"

Nikki walked up to the front of the group and said, "Either you let us in or we force ourselves in!"

Wacky looked nervously at the massive group of gathering dark chao, and then said, "It's not the size of the army that counts, but the size of the heart! Wavers, attack!"

The Wacky Wavers then jumped onto their hover boards and began flying over the mob, shooting at them with their eclipse-powered weapons. It was easy pickings.

As the dark chao scrambled for cover, Midnight took out her gun and said, "They don't know how stupid they really are!"

Nikki watched as Midnight fired her machine gun at a waver, and with just one bullet, both chao and board went up in flames.

"Oh, wow!" Nikki said, getting out the pistol he had killed Ozimbus with to shoot Wacky, but then realized he was gone from the ramp. He shrugged and started shooting down more wavers.

Once the Wacky Wavers were vanquished, Wacky still remained missing. Suddenly, a Skulblakian fighter took off and flew out of the space station, activating hyperdrive immediately after, disappearing from view.

"He got away!" Nikki said, disappointed.

"It's ok," Midnight said, comforting him. "It wasn't you're fault.

"But a lot of dark chao just died right now! That's not cool!" Nikki stomped his foot.

Midnight put her hand on Nikki's shoulder. "It's alright, Nikki. Countless dark chao have died in this war. In fact, you've killed a decent number of them yourself. Give Wacky a break."

Suddenly, the space station gave a slight quake. Nikki then noticed that the lights, the sirens, and the intercom voices all shut off slowly. The entire space station was dark. The only light was the purple-tinted light of the solar eclipse, which was drawing to an end.

"Everyone inside the freighter!" Midnight yelled out. "We don't have much time!"

Suddenly, the space station let out a loud groaning noise and jolted sharply to the right, knocking Nikki off of balance, along with most of the other dark chao. Nikki then began sliding down the now-slanted floor, crashed headfirst into the wall, and fainted.

Nimbus was on the moon when his eclipse-powered phone began to ring. He picked it up and spoke, "Hello?"

"It's Bandit! How're you doing up there, Nimbus?"

"I'm doing alright," Nimbus replied.

"Have you destroyed the space station yet?"

"No, not yet." Nimbus replied. "I took out the cannon before the eclipse, and now the survivors and I are waiting it out on the moon."

"Well, you'd better pick up the pace! We've got something to show you…" Bandit's voice slurred as the phone malfunctioned.

"…Hello?" Nimbus looked at the phone. He shook it a few times, then banged it on the dashboard of his fighter. "That's strange…" He looked out at the Skulblakian space station. Nimbus watched closely as the space station grew dark and everything shut off. The station also began tilting in a falling motion. Nimbus' eyes widened. It appeared as though the space station had been shut down. _It won't be able to maintain its orbit, which means it's going to be sucked down by Mobius' gravity! And with its indestructible armor, the atmosphere won't be able to burn through it in time to stop it from collision!_

Nimbus impatiently waited for the eclipse to end, and once it did and his fighter regained its power, he instantly began tracking the space station's speed, acceleration, and path. "Oh, No… It's worse than I thought!" Nimbus yelled to himself, panicking. "At the rate the station is going, it will crash head-on with the unstable Skulblakian volcano, Mt. Magmus, ultimately blowing up Skulblakia! Which would be pretty rad. But according to my scanner's readings, the force of the explosion will trigger one or several super-sized tidal waves, which will swallow both Chao World and Emerald Hill Island, destroying everything on them. And that's not rad at all. I have to alert the islands of the danger as soon as possible!"

Nimbus used the intercom to tell his moon-dwelling pilots of the imminent disaster, and then they took off from the moon and activated hyperdrive towards Mobius.

Nikki awoke from his deep sleep when he felt Midnight shaking him violently.

"What is it? What happened? What's going on?" Nikki asked, still slightly dizzy.

"Something caused the space station to shut down! It has lost its orbit and is being sucked in by Mobius' gravity!" Midnight looked desperate. "We need to get out of here as fast as possible!"

"Ok, start leading the other dark chao to the freighter," Nikki said as he struggled to get up. He stumbled towards the freighter, trying not to lose balance as the space station jerked and tilted further.

Once inside the freighter, Nikki attempted to drive it, but Midnight stopped him, saying, "I'll drive the freighter. You just rest. You've had a hard day already."

"No, you don't understand," Nikki pushed her back. "I'm really awesome at flying planes and fighters and freighters. It's easy, anyone can do it."

Midnight sighed "Alright. Whatever you say."

The space station unleashed another unbearable groaning sound, and jolted further to the right, shaking more violently.

"Everyone hold on!" Midnight shouted, as she prepared the freighter for takeoff.

The freighter lifted off of the ground, as the space station quaked once again, sending the loading ramps, boxes of weapons, and docked Skulblakian fighters sliding into a wall. As soon as the freighter left the gaping exit of the hangar, Midnight activated the hyperdrive, sending the freighter at a high speed towards the atmosphere.

Ailey and Rupie were helping Chacky and Chaofun, their new dark chao friends, dispose of the dead on the battlefield. Ailey couldn't help thinking that it was a wonderful thing how she managed to convince all of the dark chao to switch sides. It was the most brilliant plan anyone had ever thought of. She even considered herself to be as divine as Nikki and Nimbus. Now hero and dark chao could work together as friends, all in the name of ice cream. Ailey was just putting a wounded neutral power type into a stretcher until she heard the familiar voice of Abzilro yelling and whining as he usually did, trying to take his army back. The solar eclipse had ended several minutes before, so the NCPA vehicles and weapons worked again. Abzilro was now being captured and put into a prison vehicle to be taken to the Neutropolis prison and held there for interrogation. As usual, Abzilro went on with his complaints. He kept on yelling, "You can't take me! I'm a leader! Let me go! I have a lawyer you know! I'm going to sue you! Hey! Don't squeeze me like a teddy bear! I'm ZXY007! I'll destroy you all!"

Abzilro flailed his handcuffed arms in distress, trying hopelessly to break free. It wasn't until he was about to be thrown into the prison vehicle that he kicked at one of the guards holding him, head-butted a second one, and tore free of his restraints with brute strength. Before the other guards could react, he hoarfed up a pellet and struck the ground with it. Just like that, he vanished in a puff of purple smoke. Startled, the power types just stood there staring in disbelief at the space where Abzilro had once been.

"Where'd he go?" one of the power types asked.

Chaofun, walking up to them, replied, "He teleported. He's gone."

Ailey, astonished, asked, "Abzilro can teleport? I thought only emperors could do that!"

"Well you thought wrong," Chaofun said flatly.

"Abzilro was entrusted with the position of governor over Emerald Hill Island for a reason," Chacky added, joining the conversation. "There's more to Abzilro than sheer stupidity."

Ailey then began to hear the humming of star-fighters, both NCPA and Skulblakian, approaching quickly. Once they reached the clearing, they flew in circles franticly.

Ailey turned to Cassius and asked, "What's happening? They're all flying like a panicked swarm of bugs!"

"I'm not sure," Cassius replied. Then he pointed at the sky, "Look up there!"

Sure enough, three Skulblakian space freighters were searching for a place to land in the crowded field.

"Make room for them!" Cassius shouted to the NCPA and Skulblakian ground troops. "They're trying to land!"

After the space freighters landed, they began spewing dark chao. The fighters also began landing. The drivers immediately jumped out, flailing their arms and screaming something that seemed important. Ailey smiled with relief when she noticed Nikki come out of one of the freighters along with a pack of other dark chao. She ran up and hugged him. "Oh, I'm so glad you're safe! Did you defeat Ozimbus? Did you get hurt?"

"Of course I defeated Ozimbus," Nikki retorted. "I'm Nikki the Chao, it was my destiny."

Cassius then ran up to Nikki, congratulating him on his victory over Ozimbus.

"Now that most of you are here, I have something to say" Nikki said, wiping out his smile.

"What is it?" Ailey asked nervously, watching the dark chao behind him grow more panicked by the moment.

"The space station was somehow shut down," Nikki announced. Before anyone could jump for joy, Nikki continued with the bad part. "Its orbital pattern is disrupted, and now it's vulnerable to Mobius' gravity. At this very second, it's falling towards Skulblakia, where it will trigger the eruption of Mt. Magmus, and completely destroy Skulblakia."

All of the dark chao listening gasped in horror to what would happen to their homes.

Nikki continued, "The shock of the explosion will cause a tidal wave, which will swallow up the other two chao islands."

All of the chao in the field slowly realized their incoming doom and began to panic as the news of the space station spread like a virus. Rupie and Nimbus ran up to where Nikki was standing.

"You got the news, right?" Nikki asked, not wanting to repeat it.

"Nimbus told me," Rupie replied, looking at Nimbus.

Ailey spoke out, "Ok, we need a plan! How are we going to avoid this situation?"

"Working on it," said Cassius, focusing what little brain power he had into his divine estimation skills. "The space station will collide with Skulblakian in exactly thirty minutes. The tidal wave will reach Chao World in eighty minutes, and the wave will reach Emerald Hill Island in ninety-five minutes."

"Woah." All the chao stared in awe at Cassius.

"Ah! I'm not finished!" Cassius continued. "The tidal wave will not be tall enough to reach the tallest points of the two islands, Half-moon Mountain for Chao World, and Solar Hill for Emerald Hill Island. If we evacuate the islands in the time listed and get them to the summits of the two mountains, then we can save the population of the islands. As for Skulblakia…"

"Don't worry about Skulblakia" Midnight said, patting Cassius on the back. "Skulblakia is nearly empty for all we know. There are just a couple of guards and some insignificant prisoners."

Rupie and Ailey then simultaneously screamed, "Fang and Chaolin!"

"We can only hope they get off the island with the prisoners safely before it blows up," Midnight said. "Meanwhile, we can use these space freighters to transport the chao on this island to Solar Hill. We need someone to lead the evacuation in Chao World, also"

Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie naturally looked at Cassius, thereby forcibly giving him the job.

Midnight continued, "All of the Skulblakian space freighters on the two islands are to be loaded with chao and driven to the summits. If anyone knows anyone who owns a fighter, then by all means USE them! The more space we have on the freighters the more chao we can save, got it?"

"Got it!" yelled most of the chao in the group simultaneously, getting to their various jobs of making sure their families and friends were being evacuated safely.


	28. Evacuate!

**28**

**Evacuate!**

Fang and Chaolin, with the help of the dark chao, had just rescued the prisoners from the hidden chamber. Fang was amazed at the sight of King Kirtie, who was a purple neutral power type. Fang also looked with awe at Cloudy and Stratus, likely the most studly hero chao that ever existed. Cloudy, being a hero power type, was expressionless and blunt, yet always knew what he was doing. Stratus, a hero run type and Cloudy's assistant, wasn't too unusual, except for his size and heroic aura.

The group, consisting of Fang, Chaolin, Cloudy, Stratus, Kirtie, and twelve dark chao, were having a friendly conversation, completely unaware of the space station ordeal.

"My name's Peaches," The leader of the dark chao group spoke out.

"Peaches," Fang nodded. "I'm Fang, and this is Chaolin, Cloudy, Stratus, and King Kirtie" Fang pointed out all of his companions individually.

"Hey Fang!" Chaolin yelled. "Try calling Bandit to tell them we found the prisoners safely!"

"Oh, that's right!" Fang pulled out the phone and tried to call, but it didn't work.

"The phone's broken. It won't work," Fang muttered, pushing the call button rapidly, although it did no good.

"I wonder what happened," Peaches said, examining the phone. "This looks like a phone that would run on energy from the space station."

Chaolin, excited, yelled, "That means Nimbus and Nikki destroyed it! Yay! Nikki was my student! Mine! I'm such a proud Chao School teacher! I taught him everything he knows! Which means I'm actually the one who saved Chao World, because he never would have done it without me! Ha! Haha! I'm amazing, I know."

A random dark chao slapped Chaolin.

"But the space station can't be destroyed," Peaches muttered in disbelief. "It's absolutely impossible. The space station is imbued with the power of friendship, making it invincible! The only way to destroy it would be to shut it down. And that means…"

Peaches was interrupted by the sound of fire outside of the windows, and everything began to grow brighter. The group looked outside to see a flaming object falling from space. On closer inspection, the group realized that the object was the space station, speeding towards Skulblakia.

"Oh, no!" Peaches cried in disbelief. "It's heading straight for Mt. Magmus! That volcano is too unstable to take that much friendship all at once! We have to leave right away!"

Before the group could turn and begin their trip down the pyramid, the space station hit its mark, crashing into the side of Mt. Magmus and sending a shockwave across the whole island. Once the shockwave hit, the entire pyramid shook violently, knocking down most of the chao in the group. Fang, still standing like a stud, watched hypnotized as glowing cracks began to form where the red-hot frame of the space station had landed. The cracks began spewing smoke and spurts of lava, and it wasn't long before the volcano itself gave way, unleashing an explosion of smoke and lava in every direction. The shock of the explosion sent several mega-sized cracks cascading down the volcano. One of the cracks, this one filled with fresh lava, was on a course for Zelbai.

While Fang was still in a trance, watching his home island being destroyed and the huge glowing crack growing ever nearer, Chaolin tugged on his arm, "Come on, Fang! We need to get out of here!"

Fang snapped out of it and nodded, following Peaches and his group, who were already leaving the chamber.

The whole city was shaking now, and it was hard to run. Fang and the rest of the group found it hard not to stumble while trying to go down the countless stairs in the passageway. Once in the throne room, the group noticed that the fire wall was back up, blockading their way to the door, and the switch to turn it off was on the other side.

"Don't worry!" Peaches exclaimed hurriedly. "I'll do this!"

Peaches grabbed his bag and prepared to throw it, but Chaolin stopped him.

"Peaches! Don't throw your bag! It will be destroyed, along with all your other stuff inside!"

Peaches looked at her and said, "It's times like these when you choose either losing a bag or losing your life!"

"You can't!" Chaolin screamed. "I'll sacrifice myself to save your stuff!" Without giving anyone time to object, Chaolin ran down the stairs and dove through the wall of fire. She was totally on fire when she emerged, but she screamed, "Super Ultra Mega Delta Chaos Chao Spirit De-Flamulator Refrigerator… Supreme!" and the fire dispersed from her polished chaos chao skin. Then she ran to the off switch for the firewall and turned it off.

"Good job, Chaolin!" Kirtie congratulated, and then began to run to the other side of the room.

The group ran down the many stairways, still tripping and falling through the quakes, which were getting stronger by the moment. Once the group came across to the main room, with the entrance just on the other side, they gasped in horror when they saw the gigantic chandelier on the ceiling of the room lose its grip and barrel down to the ground. It landed in front of the door with a great crash, blocking the way.

"Now what do we do?" Chaolin asked, looking with dismay at the pile of metal and glass that blocked their way.

"We blow it up!" one of Peaches' dark chao spoke up, holding a stick of dynamite.

"Great idea!" Peaches complimented. "Throw me that dynamite!"

Peaches caught the dynamite and ran to where the chandelier had fallen. He used one of the still-ignited candles on the ruins to light the dynamite, and he placed it as far under the junk as possible. He then ran back, yelling, "Duck for cover!"

The group scattered in different directions, finding somewhere to hide from the explosion. Soon the chandelier exploded into millions of pieces of shrapnel. Once the flurry of glass and metal was over, Fang looked out from where he was hiding and saw that the door was accessible once again.

Before anyone could cheer or celebrate, a violent quake shook the island and the sound of splitting ground cut through the air. The group ran to the door and opened it to find out that the huge crack had hit Zelbai, creating a fiery chasm of lava between the doorway and solid ground outside.

"Now what?" Chaolin asked apprehensively.

"We jump!" Peaches replied, signaling to King Kirtie that he was to go first.

Kirtie jumped and made it, and then signaled to Peaches that it was safe for him and the rest to jump.

The rest of the chao followed Kirite's example, and they all made it to the other side safely, except for Chaolin, still shivering with fear staring blankly at the cavernous river of bright red lava.

"Jump Chaolin!" Cloudy yelled. "The longer you wait the further you'll have to jump!"

Sure enough, the ground was crumbling and falling into the ditch, making it wider every second.

"I'm scared! What if I fall in?" Chaolin asked, still shivering.

She was answered by a loud creaking sound from the pyramid, as it began to tilt in the direction of the ditch.

"It's falling in! The ground under Zelbai will give way any second! Chaolin! Jump now!"

"But I…" Chaolin shuddered

"Go Now! Jump, you stupid chao!" Chaolin was interrupted by Fang, who was apparently tired of Chaolin's stubbornness.

Without hesitation, Chaolin backed up and raced toward the ditch. She leaped, flailing her arms in attempt to get to the other side of the ditch. She landed, but the ground where she was crumpled under her weight, and she began toppling down the ditch towards the lava. Fang, acting quicker than he ever had, reached out for Chaolin, but he slipped and fell in. He grabbed Chaolin's ankles, ready to go down with her, but Fang felt someone else grab his ankles. It was Peaches, and his small army was holding him to the ground, keeping him from falling in. Together, the dark chao hauled Fang and Chaolin out of the canyon, which was now too wide to jump.

'Thanks," Chaolin breathed, still in shock.

"You almost killed us both," Fang muttered, panting.

The pyramid then creaked and groaned, and the ground quickly crumpled under its weight, letting it slide slowly into the lava-filled gorge. Fang thought the mighty pyramid looked small and pathetic compared to the canyon of lava attempting to swallow it. The walls of the canyon gave way to Zelbai's weight, letting it fall the rest of the way into the lava and swallowing it forever.

"It's so sad to watch my home city go," Peaches said solemnly, staring at the lava.

"I know how you feel," Fang said, also feeling sad that his hometown was swallowed by a fiery pit.

The two chao's thoughts were interrupted by a violent quake and a blast from the volcano. Fang looked at it, and noticed that the volcano had cracks all over it, spewing lava to no end. The main crater of the volcano was unleashing a column of dark smoke, ashes, burning embers, and other volcanic material.

"We have to get out of here!" Chaolin screamed.

"Peaches! Where's the nearest thing that can take us out of here?" Kirtie asked firmly.

"Over there at the landing base!" Peaches yelled, pointing at a landing base a half-mile from where the group stood.

"Let's go!" Fang yelled as he started running towards the landing base.

As the group ran, ashes fell from the sky like snow, covering the ground in a gray blanket of ash. Embers came crashing down, ranging from the size of a pea to the size of a house, catching trees and any other flammable thing on the island on fire. Fang almost fainted in shock when a refrigerator-sized ember hit a gas tank in the middle of the landing base. Almost simultaneously, the entire base exploded, spreading shrapnel and broken fighter shards in every direction. When the smoke cleared, only a tinted-black crater remained, now being turned gray due to the ashes falling from the sky.

"The landing base!" Chaolin yelled in dismay. "Now what do we do?"

Fang looked at Chaolin intentionally. Once he locked eye contact with her, he nodded affirmatively.

She gasped. "You don't mean…?"

Fang nodded again. "You know what to do."

Chaolin nodded. "Quick, everyone hold hands in a circle! Fang and I need to be across from each other!"

All the chao assembled into formation without question. Wait, nevermind.

"Are we playing Ring around the Rosie?" Kirtie asked, delighted. "I love that game so much!"

A loud blasting sound pierced the air. Fang looked at the nearby hills to see the ground splitting again, forming geysers of lava, which were spontaneously spreading throughout the island. The lava quickly spread also, destroying anything the embers or cracks had failed to destroy before. He looked over at Kirtie. "With all due respect your majesty, now's not the time to play games. This is the time to escape."

With that, Chaolin and Fang focused on their mystical chaos chao abilities. They glowed with green aura, and tendrils of the aura curled around the entire group and eventually illuminated them all. Meanwhile, the lava geysers grew with more intensity, spewing more volcanic material every second. The entire island was on fire now; there was nothing left untouched by disaster.

Fang and Chaolin took deep breaths and shouted, "Super Mega Ultra Meta Gamma Beta Dick Sparkly Chaos Chao Tremendous Uber Epic Ianly Bird Flight Carousel Simulation of Death-Defying Impossibilities! AH-OOOH!"

With that, the group of chao levitated into the air and began spinning as they soared higher and higher into the air. The aura made the group look like a UFO. As they lifted off, the volcano self-destructed, sending shockwaves across the island, also causing the geysers around the island to explode. Skulblakia was now covered in tiny explosions, like that of a space freighter without its power generator. Suddenly and without warning, the entire dark chao nation of Skulblakia was consumed in a fiery ball of growing flame. Just before the fiery mass consumed the spinning group of chao, they darted away to safety in the horizon, vanishing as a little twinkling star in the distance.

Once the explosion faded, the shockwaves caused by the explosion stirred the ocean, causing it to bulge up into a huge rolling lump, which began coursing straight toward the other chao islands.


	29. Death Approaches

**29**

**Death Approaches**

Back at Chao World, Cassius had been trying to convince the Skulblakian government at Neutropolis to initiate an evacuation to Half-Moon Mountain before the tidal wave hit.

"The wave is heading this way! We need to get everyone safely to the mountain or they'll never survive!" Cassius pleaded.

One of the government officials countered, "That's not the first complaint we've heard about certain doom! You're just trying to distract us so that we'll miss out on the ice cream! We will not evacuate the city."

"But…"

"Drop the act right now or you'll be thrown in prison!" The official shouted.

"If you want ice cream so bad you'll have to listen to me!" Cassius shouted angrily. "Look. The ice cream is on Half-Moon Mountain. We of all chao have the advantage because we're so close. We can get there first and eat our fill before the chao from Emerald Hill Island get here. Doesn't that sound great?"

The official's eyes were huge. "Yes. I never thought of it that way before. You, my friend, are a genius." He walked away.

Shortly after, the alarm sounded and shocked the citizens of Neutropolis into panic.

NCPA star-fighters flew over the city with loudspeakers, shouting, "A tidal wave is approaching! More importantly, there's ice cream on Half-Moon Mountain! Evacuate there as fast and orderly as possible! Leave your possessions behind! If you have a star-fighter, use it! If you're really legit and own a space freighter, be a sire and fill it full of evacuees to fly them up to the mountain! Don't be selfish and hog the whole thing to yourself! There's more than enough ice cream for everyone!"

Cassius then assisted the evacuation of chao to Half-Moon Mountain.

Nikki, Ailey, and Rupie directed the panicked chao in Diamond City towards the airport. The planes, star-fighters, and freighters there would be useful for transporting chao up to Solar Hill. Luckily, many hero chao had vehicles of their own: flat two-chao vehicles they called hover-speeders. If any chao owned a hover-speeder, they were to grab a partner and go up to Solar Hill on it. Although there were many means of transportation on the island, some chao still had to go up to the hill on foot. Since run types were the fastest, many of them were forced to go on foot because they could run fast enough to save themselves.

Nikki was surprised at how devastated the city looked since he left it only two weeks ago. There were panicked chao, both hero and dark, running in every direction for one thing. In addition, the streets and buildings were dirty and the diamonds throughout the city were chipped and broken. Nikki guessed it was because the dark chao running the city chipped pieces of diamond off to get rich. They totally would.

Nikki snapped himself out of his thoughts and returned to what he was supposed to be doing. He and the other chao were directing traffic, which Nikki thought was boring. Hardly a job for the hero who just saved all of Chao World from the evil Emperor Ozimbus. When would he get the recognition and treatment he deserved? He wished chao would stop paying so much attention to evacuating the city and give him a little bit of hero's credit.

"Nikki, the city's almost empty" Ailey said, interrupting his selfish thoughts. "Do you think we should get into that freighter over there and get to the hill now?"

"Yeah, sure" Nikki said awkwardly. "Let's go."

Lost in narcissism, Nikki ran to the freighter with his friends behind him. Once inside, he found out that Nimbus was driving this freighter and instantly became jealous. Nikki sat down on a bench next to Ailey, still thinking about the things that troubled him. Once at the top of the hill, Nikki stepped off of the freighter and decided to silence the cynical and crying children of Diamond City. It wasn't very hard once he found a roll of duct tape.

Airplanes, star-fighters of all kinds, and hover-speeders zipped about in the air, transporting chao of all types to the summit of the hill, which was growing more crowded every second.

"Are you ok, Nikki?" Ailey asked worriedly. "You haven't said anything since we got here".

"I'm fine" Nikki said, not wanting to reveal how useless and underappreciated he felt. "I'm just tired".

"You don't look just tired. You look troubled by something," Ailey said with a note of concern. "You can tell me what's bothering you."

Nikki thought for a second, and then after coming up with an excuse, replied, "It's ZXY007. It makes me nervous that it's still out there somewhere. I'm thinking a lot about it".

"I see," Ailey said tentatively. "Well after this whole thing's sorted out, maybe we can go find and destroy it."

Suddenly, the war alarm Nikki had heard last time he was in Diamond City began wailing loudly throughout the island.

As Nikki turned to Ailey to ask what was going on, Ailey said, "It's not a war alarm, it's a tsunami alert. It's the alarm that says a tidal wave is on the approach and that we'd better get to high ground."

"Why would you use a tsunami warning to signal a tidal wave? They're two different things," Nikki muttered.

"What do you mean?" Ailey tilted her head.

"Tsunamis only take place in Japan. Tidal waves hit everywhere else. I don't even understand why Diamond City HAS a tsunami alert. Pretty useless, don't you think?"

Ailey's eyes widened. "You're right. We should tell King Scamper to change it when we get a chance."

As Cassius helped to unload space freighters and other transportation vehicles at Half-Moon Mountain, what should descend from the clouds above but a rapidly spinning ring of chao, surrounded in green aura? That's right, it was Fang and Chaolin, and all the other chao they rescued! They descended in a flurry of flashing green light and landed softly on their feet. They unlinked hands and bowed. But no one was paying attention because they were busy. Cloudy farted.

A few seconds later, an NCPA fighter landed not far away. Bandit stepped out. Chao instantly gathered around him and celebrated his arrival. Everyone noticed. Bandit, surrounded in paparazzi, went towards Cassius. Fang couldn't hear the conversation over the sound of screaming chao and the constant humming and roaring of flying vehicles, so he decided to wait for Cassius to notice him and tell him.

Once Cassius noticed Fang and approached him, he cut to the chase and said, "Bandit said that he and the mechanics at the military station constructed a solid metal dome over the exposed parts of the station, and he said if the mountain got too full to send the other chao over there."

Fang thought that sounded stupid, but he looked around the mountain and noticed that the mountain was getting close to being full.

"We'll alert the freighter pilots once they land again," Fang decided. "By that time the mountain should be close to full."

After about half-an-hour of directing chao and freighters where to go, Fang felt exhausted and out of breath. He then heard the screaming of an apparently panicked chao shouting. As he began to interpret the words of the screaming chao, his heart was struck with fear when he heard, "It's coming! It's coming! We're all DOOMED!"

Fang and the other chao on the mountain rushed over to the western side of the summit to see a deep blue lump on the horizon of the ocean. It was too far to tell if it was moving, but Fang new it was, and it would be upon them in minutes.

As Fang thought about the matter, Chaolin came and said, "Not everyone's up here yet! The planes just took off for the military station, and there's a huge caravan of chao walking up here! They'll be wiped out!"

Sure enough, Fang looked down the mountain trail to see a caravan of almost a thousand chao walking up the slopes.

"Tell Cassius to tell them to go faster," Fang replied.

Chaolin went and complained to Cassius, who then grabbed a megaphone and yelled. "Attention all chao: Run! Run! You don't have much time! It's coming! Run!" One by one, the straggler chao got the message and began trying to run up the steep path.

Fang looked in the direction of the wave again and noticed it was _closer_ then when he last saw it only half-a-minute ago. Fang realized that most of this caravan of evacuees wouldn't make it. They'd be swept away by the massive wave, never to be seen again.


	30. Destruction

**30**

**Destruction**

The bulging mass of the tidal wave, which was about three-hundred-sixty feet tall in its storm surge form, was picking up speed and size as it stealthily approached the island. The Neutropolis border was only a quarter-mile from the ocean, so it was going to face tons of disaster when the wave hit. With the wave only three quarters of a mile out to sea, the water on the beach rapidly began to pull back, exposing rocks, coral reefs, old beer cans, chao skeletons, and fish flopping on the wet sand. The massive wave also began to tower up as it prepared to smash down on the helpless little city.

Fang and the other chao on Half-Moon Mountain watched in horror as the caravan of running chao were still squabbling for space on the mountain. The chao in the caravan ran even faster now and screamed, seeing the wave and how close it was to demolishing everything they knew. Fang sighed in relief when the last chao in the caravan ran up the mountain safety.

"That was close!" Chaolin said, short of breath.

"No! My child! Rescue my child!" a distressed mother called out, and Fang turned to see a young chao, still on the mountain path, lying on the floor and crying.

The wave was now noticeably taller than Neutropolis itself, as the water that was sucked back from the beach was forcibly pushed forward, creating a five-foot storm surge that sped through the city, picking up trash, debris, and small vehicles with it. The sewer caps throughout the city streets went skyrocketing as huge geysers came out through every sewer entrance in the city. Fang thought this looked very familiar at first, but this was not an ancient water monster drunk on chaos emeralds. This was a fudging TIDAL WAVE, and boy did it mean business. It was going to destroy everyone and everything it touched. It had finally reached the city, moving at full speed, and began crushing everything in its path, whether it was uprooting trees or toppling skyscrapers. As the wave made contact with each tower in the city, its windows exploded with water, and soon after, the whole building was taken down by the force of the wave upon it.

The wave was now approaching Half-Moon Mountain, and Fang could tell panic was rising as to whether the wave would get them or not. The mother was still panicking and the child was still crying, but Fang realized the danger he would be putting himself in if he ran down to rescue the child, so he decided not to rescue it. The mother eventually fussed and went to get the child herself.

"Hold on to something sturdy!" Cassius yelled as he grabbed a thick tree and clung to it.

Fang grabbed a boulder and stood fast. The rest of the chao found boulders, tree roots, trees, or other sturdy objects to cling to.

The tidal wave reached the mountain, and the top of the wave slapped the summit, dumping water relentlessly on the panicked chao. The crying child and its mother were nothing but a memory.

"This is worse than a hurricane!" one of the chao yelled as he clung for his life to a tree. "But not as bad as my wife!"

The bulk of the wave then went around the mountain, as it could not jump it, and continued to wreck everything else on the island. Fang watched as the wave uprooted entire forests, completely dissolved tiny towns, and, to Chaolin's dismay, destroyed the Chao School building, carrying it into the ocean with it. Chaolin watched the building sadly as the wave left it behind in the ocean and it sunk like a rock, never to be seen again. Chaolin only hoped that marine life forms would find it useful to teach their children. The wave went back into its storm surge form, and once again, was a rolling blue mass heading straight for Emerald Hill Island, its next victim.

"Wait a moment!' A random chao shouted. "Where's the ice cream!?"

Nikki waited anxiously for the wave to come. He couldn't take the suspense and boredom any longer. He felt sort of better when he saw the blue lump in the distance.

Unlike Chao World, Emerald Hill Island didn't have very many inhabitants, so it was easy for Nikki and the other NCPA members to direct the traffic to Solar Hill. The entire population of Emerald Hill Island was on the hill watching the incoming wave.

King Scamper, not concerned about the tidal wave, was talking to his guards, Cloudy and Stratus, about their experience being a prisoner of Skulblakia.

Nikki heard him asking them, "Where were you kept? What was it like there? Did other chao come to rescue you and fail? What was that creature guarding the cage like? How long were you kept in the cage? Did the dark chao bring you food and water? How about ice cream?"

Nikki thought the questions from King Scamper would just keep coming and coming. He was glad Scamper didn't ask that many questions when he, Ailey, and Rupie were talking with him in his palace about Skulblakia before the invasion.

The tidal wave now wasn't far from the island, and was sucking back the water from the beach. The wave also began growing into its collapsing form. Nikki watched with mixed awe and entertainment as the wave collapsed on where Ailey and Rupie's house was, and the tiny village near it. The wave continued towards the hill, slightly weakening in strength, destroying everything in its path. When it reached the hill, it wasn't tall enough to breach the hill, so it just went around it. Nikki only felt a couple drops of water and spray hit him, as did the other chao on the hill.

"That wave sucked," a random chao shouted.

The wave then gobbled up the field where the NCPA met the Skulblakian troops during the solar eclipse, washing away the scraps of dismantled tanks, abandoned weapons, and dead chao bodies. Once the wave reached Diamond City, no one screamed and yelled in terror as the wave completely buried the city in water. Scamper looked bored by this situation and continued to stare blankly at the wave as it passed through Diamond City.

Nikki was fed up with Scamper's weird attitude towards the wave, so he decided to question him about it. "Why aren't you upset that Diamond City was buried in water by the wave? Your Palace also wasn't so fortunate".

Scamper smiled at him and replied, "Diamond City is entirely made of rocks and minerals, primarily diamond. It would take more than a wall of water to collapse a building made of stone. It's true the insides of the buildings were destroyed, but that can easily be repaired. As for the Palace, I made sure I locked all of the doors and boarded all of the windows so the water couldn't get in. The palace may be soaked on the outside, but it should be dry and unharmed on the inside".

Nikki wasn't impressed. "How can a wave that obliterated sky scrapers, which are made of concrete and metal, not harm a building made of stupid rocks?"

"Because I'm the King and what I say happens," Scamper said flatly.

Nikki gasped with wonder and amazement. "Wow! You're a smart King!"

"You're not too stupid yourself!" Scamper replied, and then looked at the wave, which was now back in the ocean, growing smaller and smaller as it lost strength.

Nikki looked at Diamond City and noticed, as the water around it was draining out into the ocean, that the buildings were mostly unharmed. Doors had been torn from their hinges and the little fruit stands and roadside shops were dismantled and scattered to pieces around the city. The flagpole which held the Skulblakian flag was now empty, as the wave had torn it off, and was vacant enough for an Emerald Hill Island flag to replace it. Nikki thought the city looked beautiful, even in the midst of destruction, with puddles and planks of wood covering the brick streets, and rainbows dancing about as the last of the water drained into the ocean. The Palace was also left untouched. As the roofs of the many golden towers dripped water, the warm afternoon sun evaporated it into steam, creating a mystical fog-like sight. Rainbows flitted and danced around the Palace, making it look like an enchanted fairytale with destruction on the side.

One by one, the chao on the hill began jumping up and down in glee and happiness, clapping and singing with joy, as they realized that their danger was gone, and they ran and slid joyfully down the wet grassy hill to go see their great capital city in all its pseudo-destroyed glamor.

Once Nikki came down the hill, he noticed the children running about, splashing in the puddles and running through the rainbows. Some of them totally still had duct tape covering their mouths. The adult chao, hero and dark alike, began to pick up the parts from the destroyed fruit stands and doors as if the war had never happened and there was peace in the world. Nikki also noticed the hero and dark chao, smiling, putting up a new Emerald Hill flag on the flagpole.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, how the dark and hero chao are working together?" Nikki turned to notice Ailey and Rupie standing beside him.

"It sure is. It sure is beautiful," Nikki agreed, feeling more calm and relaxed than he had ever felt in his life.

"I just have one question," Ailey whispered.

"What is it?" Nikki looked at her.

"Why do some of the kids have duct tape over their mouths?"

Nikki froze for a moment, and then chuckled. "Yeah, that was totally me. They were noisy, so I shut them up."

Ailey shook her head in disbelief while Rupie disciplined Nikki with her wooden staff.


	31. Peace to All

**31**

**Peace to All**

The next day, all of the chao from the three islands crowded into the drenched streets of Diamond City, as horns blew and drums played, to celebrate the ending of the war with Skulblakia and the reign of Emperor Ozimbus. The celebration was to last long into the night, involving more ice cream than any chao had ever seen in their lifetime, and then the next day the chao would go back to their home islands and do their part to repair the damage done by the tidal wave. The dark chao were to live with hero or neutral friends until Kings Kirtie and Scamper decided what to do about the Skulblakian ruins. As for the dark chao who had no hero or neutral friends, they'd just have to settle for being homeless until further notice.

Scamper, Kirtie, and their best guards also voted on who would be the new leader of Skulblakia. After a landslide vote, Fang was appointed the official Emperor of Skulblakia, because no one could do a better job of leading dark chao than a dark chaos chao who let a mother and her child get annihilated by a tidal wave.

There was also to be a parade down the main street of the city towards the center plaza, where an awards ceremony would be held, followed by an air show and fireworks at night.

Nikki stood anxiously on the platform in the central plaza of Diamond City, waiting for the parade to arrive. He was considered a war hero, along with Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, Nimbus, and Fang. Chaolin was an honorable mention, since she did some epic stuff but nothing cool enough to actually get recognized. They would all be given awards for their bravery in battle.

Suddenly, Nikki heard several horns blow and a joyous shout came from the masses of chao on either side of the wide street. Soon, Nikki could see the parade on the other end of the street. The first part was two rows of chao blowing horns, the first row was entirely neutral chao and the second row was entirely dark chao. After the horn blowers, there was a gap and then five rows of drum players. The rows were alternating from hero to neutral, and they were playing in the beat of the horn blowers in front of them, creating noise. Behind the drummers were two tanks, one Skulblakian and one NCPA. From the cannons of the two tanks hung a huge banner which said in massive blue letters, 'PEACE' and had the three island symbols around it. Behind the tanks was a massive parade float covered in decorative flowers. The float had a three-seated gold throne and a flag of each chao nation above each throne. Sitting on the throne under their respective flags were King Scamper, King Kirtie, and Emperor Fang. Behind the parade float, there were fifteen chao, five hero, five neutral, and five dark, who danced around with confetti cannons and would occasionally fire them at the crowd.

Nikki watched as the horn blowers and the drummers reached the central plaza and lined up on the side of the road to make way for the parade float. Once the float reached the central plaza, the horn blowers blew their horns and the crowd yelled with glee. The float came to a stop nearby the platform where Nikki and the others stood, and Scamper, Kirtie, and Fang disembarked the float. They walked underneath a colorful tunnel of confetti, courtesy of the chao with the confetti cannons, and walked up the steps onto the platform where the chao heroes were. Once there they faced the crowd and began waving as the horns blew and the drums played.

Eventually, Scamper gave a motion to stop the music, while Kirtie raised his hand to silent the reckless crowd.

"Hello, and welcome to our celebration of peace!" Scamper yelled out to the crowd. "It is here where we'll recognize some heroic deeds done by a few brave chao. Without these chao, this war would have ended really horribly!"

There was a cheer from the audience, and then Scamper continued, "But first of all, we would like to introduce the new Emperor of Skulblakia, Fang!"

The crowd cheered, primarily the dark chao, as Scamper motioned towards Fang, who now wore the Skulblakian crown which Nikki remembered Ozimbus wore earlier, up to the point where Nikki killed him. How it survived the whole space station volcano tidal wave ordeal and made it safely to Fang's noggin was a complete mystery.

"And now I will give awards of bravery to the brave heroes who helped us in our time of need!" Kirtie yelled out to the audience. He picked up a box of gold medallions, held it up for the audience to see with one hand, and motioned to the chao on stage with the other. "And now I present to you: Nikki, Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, and Nimbus! For their bravery in battle!"

The crowd went wild. While they were still cheering Kirtie got shot in the forehead and collapsed, sending the box of medallions flying into the front rows of the audience. The entire crowd gasped and was silent.

"This war ain't over while I'm still breathing!" A familiar annoying voice shouted. Sure enough, standing in plain sight on top of a building behind the crowd and wielding a sniper rifle, was Abzilro.

"Abzilro!" Nikki and several others exclaimed in disbelief.

"This party is cute. Really, it is." Abzilro pooped a pellet and teleported onto the platform where Nikki and the others stood. "I thank you all for the free ice cream! I made sure to fatten myself up well before I made my appearance."

"You monster!" Cassius lunged at Abzilro, but Abzilro easily dodged and thwacked Cassius with the hilt of the sniper rifle.

"Now, listen carefully, all you stupid chao. I am ZXY007! I am incomplete in my current state, just one half of a perfect whole, but the time has finally come! My transfiguration is at hand!"

"Can you believe this guy?" Nimbus muttered.

Ailey shook her head. "He's totally bluffing."

"Someone shoot him!" Fang growled.

Cloudy and Stratus pulled out their laser pistols and tried to shoot Abzilro. But what happened next was horribly unexpected. Ozimbus' cloak materialized between the incoming lasers and Abzilro. It swallowed the lasers, twirled around, and flung them back at Cloudy and Stratus, who were both killed on impact.

The crowd began to scream and panic. The sight of the evil cloak was too much to bear.

"Aaahahahahaha!" Abzilro laughed. "The Emperor's plan is falling together wonderfully!"

"What are you talking about!?" Nikki demanded.

"Killing Ozimbus didn't solve any of your problems," Abzilro replied arrogantly. "You completely neglected to destroy the _cloak_, the only magical object alive more evil than the Emperor himself! Don't you see, stupid pathetic Nikki the Chao? ZXY007 was there all along, and you forgot to kill it! You let it escape to shut down the space station and destroy the chao nations with fire and water. You haven't saved Chao World, you've sealed its DOOM!"

"I thought you said you were ZXY007," Ailey commented. "You can't both be ZXY007, can you?"

"We sure can," Abzilro grinned evilly. "It takes two parts to make a whole. Observe with your eyes the fulfillment of Emperor Zelbai's dream of an indestructible monster powered with raw energy from the Shadow Diamond!"

Abzilro pulled out a jet-black diamond that radiated with evil energy. It looked almost as terrifying as the cloak. As soon as it was exposed to the public, dark storm clouds devoured the sky and thunder rumbled.

"The Shadow Diamond!" Nimbus gasped.

"That's right!" Abzilro rejoiced. "And with its power, I, ZXY007, will be COMPLETE! Aaaaaaahahahahaha!"

All the gathered chao watched in horror as Abzilro levitated into the air, laughing maniacally while presenting the Shadow Diamond to the sky. The evil cloak flew in circles around him like a ghost, causing wind and dust to swirl around him. Lightning struck the diamond and engulfed Abzilro's body in a white flash. The cloak was also absorbed into the blast, and a massive figure began to take shape.

"Run! Everybody run!" Scamper yelled, and all the chao who hadn't already been panicking started scattering in all directions. The wind was strong and it was blowing the party decorations everywhere and overturning tables full of ice cream, creating a huge mess.

Bandit, who happened to be nearby the two tanks that had been used in the parade, approached the drivers and pointed at the bright figure taking shape in the sky. "That thing is ZXY007, and it assassinated King Kirtie! Shoot it down!"

The tank drivers nodded, boarded the tanks, and turned them on. With the "PEACE" banner still strung between their cannons, they took aim at the figure and shot at it together. The figure was engulfed in tank bullet explosions and smoke. Soon after though, a bright white flash dissipated the smoke and blinded everyone in the immediate area.

When the brightness cleared, there floating in the air where Abzilro and the cloak had been was what appeared to be a thirty-foot-tall yellow hero normal type with enormous almond-shaped ears atop its head, a flowing golden cape, and a gold veil covering its face. It perpetually sparkled with black and purple magic, and was every bit as horrifying to look at as Ozimbus' cloak had been, if not a teensy bit more so.

"REEEEEERRRR!" the monster roared, flexing its big strong body and twirling around in the sky like a princess.

"What is that thing!?" Nimbus shouted.

"Hideous, that's what!" Fang retorted.

Bandit pointed at the monster. "Fire again!"

The tanks opened fire. The monster effortlessly caught the two tank bullets with its cape, twirled around, and threw them back with twice the force they had come. Both tanks were obliterated, as well as Bandit, who was standing too close to escape the explosion alive.

The monster gracefully lowered itself to the ground and landed on the platform in the central plaza where Nikki had stood. The platform crumbled underneath the monster's weight.

"EEEEEEEEEEE," it hummed in satisfaction as it walked towards the parade float with the three gold thrones. It levitated up and sat down on the thrones, crushing the entire parade float in the process.

"Bow before me, the Overlord of all hero, neutral, and dark chao!" the monster shouted.

In reply, a troop of chao emerged from between some buildings, wielding pistols, machine guns, and bazookas. It was a mix of Skulblakian dark chao, NCPA soldiers, and Scamper's palace guards. They took positions behind buildings and debris from the tidal wave and began shooting at the monster.

"RRRRRRRRRR," the monster growled, shielding its veiled face from the lasers. Then the monster reached for its veil and lifted it, announcing, "You will respect meeeeee!"

With that, the monster's face was revealed. It was an expression of untold horror that made Ozimbus' face look like it suited an adorable baby kitten. When the attacking chao saw it, their eyes were locked on it and they screamed in terror just before their heads exploded and their bodies crumbled to dust.

"Heeeeeheeheeeheeerrr," the monster laughed, lowering the veil again. "Do as I say, pathetic chao, and I will bring peeeaaace to aallllll… reer."

Nikki approached the monster and brandished his handgun. "ZXY007! My name is Nikki the Chao! I am really awesome, and I challenge you to a DUEL!"

"Me too!" Nimbus stood beside Nikki and sparkled. "I'm an NCPA General! It's my duty to protect Chao World with my life!"

"And me!" Ailey and Rupie said simultaneously, brandishing their weapons.

"Don't leave me out," Fang stood beside them

"Or me!" Cassius joined the group, hefting his mace.

The monster looked like it was about to speak, but King Scamper appeared. "I can't let the likes of you destroy what's left of my kingdom. ZXY007, I order you to leave. I'm the King so you have to do what I say."

"RRRRR," the monster growled. "My name is not ZXY007. That's a stupid name. I have chosen to be called the Supreme Transcendental Execrable Pixie Harbinger of Insidious Eeeeeradication."

Cassius chuckled. "STEPHIE? Now that's a stupid name!"

"We'll see who has a stupid name, Cassycass," Stephie growled. She clapped her hands and REEERR'd really loud, causing a blue shockwave to shoot out in all directions. When the shockwave hit the chao heroes, they were all teleported away.


	32. The End

**32**

**The End**

Nikki found himself surrounded by a field of stars. He grinned ear to ear when he realized he was in space again. Nimbus, Ailey, Rupie, Cassius, Fang, and Scamper were all nearby. The chao heroes were standing on a spherical blue asteroid that was quite large, but small enough that obvious curvature in the floor was visible. The gravity felt very light. There were a few other asteroids some distance away, and there was a star nearby that cast an orange glow on everything.

"Why aren't we choking?' Ailey asked as she looked around.

Rupie shrugged. "You know what I'd like to know? Why isn't that star over there causing us to burst into flames?"

"The world may never know," Ailey shrugged.

In a bright flash of darkness, Stephie appeared on the asteroid a short distance away. She banged her fists together and parted them, igniting her fists with sparkling dark lightning. "And now… we DUEL!"

"Scatter!" Nimbus shouted.

All the chao scattered as Stephie jumped up and floated towards the chao, zapping the ground with multiple tendrils of lightning as she went. Nikki found the light gravity awkward at first, but he mastered it within seconds as he realized it allowed him to jump higher and farther than he'd ever been able to before.

After Stephie passed where the chao had been, Cassius chased her, jumped up high, and landed on her back. He promptly began pummeling her with his mace, but on the third whack the mace shattered like old pottery.

Cassius' eyes widened. "Bloody hell!"

Stephie, still flying, rolled around so that now she was on her back like an otter. Cassius, to avoid falling off, grabbed on to her stubby tail and held on tight.

"Cassius!" Nikki shouted, running after Stephie and shooting her rapidly with his handgun. The lasers simply glanced off of her shiny magnificent body.

"Reeeeerr, you can't defeat me!" Stephie purred. And with that, she ground-pounded Cassius into the ground. When she lifted her rear out of the crater she created, Cassius was naught but a splat. He was no more.

"CASSIUS!" Nikki, now the lone Jungle Caper, screamed in agony. He took out the dark chao pistol he had used to kill Ozimbus and began firing both guns at Stephie.

Fang approached Nikki. "Her magic is too powerful, lasers won't do the trick."

"Well, what do you suppose we do?" Nikki asked, desperate.

Fang was about to say something, but he pointed behind Nikki. "Watch out!"

Stephie had created a ball of black flames between her arms, and it promptly spouted a torrent of liquid-like black fire at Nikki and Fang. They both jumped out of the way just in time, thanks to the low gravity. As Stephie was unleashing her attack, Rupie flew in from above, using her large fly-type wings and the low gravity to her advantage, and was going to thwack Stephie on the head with her wooden staff. She assumed that since it had been able to dismantle turrets in the Death Chamber and kill scores of dark chao during the battle on the outskirts of Diamond City, it would have no problem shattering Stephie's skull. However, the black flames arched up to meet Rupie as she dove downwards. Although she managed to pull up to avoid it, her staff caught on fire and was instantly disintegrated.

"For crying out loud!" Rupie shouted, dismayed.

Stephie teleported above Rupie and kicked her to the ground. She landed face-down with a thud, creating a small crater.

"Rupie!" Nikki yelled, his eyes widening. He half-jumped half-ran over to her. She weakly raised her head. "Nikki… I…"

Stephie ground-pounded Rupie, narrowly missing Nikki and sending him flying backwards.

"Rupie! Nooooo!" Nikki wailed as he soared halfway across the asteroid and landed sloppily, tumbling and skidding in the blue dirt.

Fang had enough. He couldn't bear the fact that two chao had already died fighting Stephie, while she herself hadn't even been scratched. He looked around and saw Scamper standing not far away, playing a game on a mobile phone. He called out to him. "King Scamper!"

"What is it?" Scamper asked, not looking up from the game.

"What's wrong with you!? Playing a game during an important fight! Chao are getting killed!"

"Shhh, let me finish," Scamper still didn't look up.

Fang rolled his eyes and sat on the ground to wait.

Five seconds later, Scamper tossed the mobile phone over his shoulder. "Alright, what is it?"

Fang stood up. "Stephie already killed Cassius and Rupie. If we don't act fast, none of us will get out of here alive and Chao World will be doomed."

"Chao World isn't my responsibility," Scamper replied flatly.

"Emerald Hill Island will be doomed," Fang growled.

"Gadzooks!" Scamper gasped. "That's horrible! What should we do!?"

"She's too powerful to be stopped with ordinary weapons, so we'll need to use our mystical chaos chao powers," Fang replied.

"That's a stupid idea," Scamper replied flatly. "I'm the King so you have to do what I say."

Fang's eye twitched. "…What do you say, oh Lord King Scamper…?"

"I say, we'll never beat it with our ordinary weapons, so we'll have to use our mystical chaos chao powers. Yes, that's it!" Scamper sparkled.

Fang muttered incoherently.

Stephie caught sight of Fang and Scamper and purred. "Reeeerrrrr… this will be funnnn…" She flew up and away from the asteroid battlefield to where there were other smaller asteroids floating.

As Stephie flew away, Fang and Scamper linked arms and focused on their mystical chaos chao energies. They became surrounded in green aura, which became more and more concentrated by the second. "Super Ultra Mega Hyper Kilo Chaos Chao Uber Airborne Flying Aurum Phantom Serendipitous Dragon Spinoff Super Duper Sonic Style… KERSHMAO!"

Both Fang and Scamper unlinked arms. They were now floating above the ground surrounded in sharp green auras that whirred powerfully around them. They exchanged glances and nodded, and then flew quickly after Stephie.

When Stephie reached a group of asteroids and turned to see Fang and Scamper jetting up towards her she giggled. "Heeeeheeeheeerrrr, get a load of this!" She began grabbing asteroids and hurtling them down at the incoming chaos chao.

Fang and Scamper began weaving between the incoming asteroids. Fang punched through one of them like a boss. Scamper caught another with telekinetic powers and sent it hurtling back at Stephie. The asteroid completely shattered on impact and knocked Stephie back. The distraction gave Fang and Scamper enough time to catch up so they could start rapidly dashing around her like electrons around an atom, punching and kicking at her.

Meanwhile, Nikki was still on the far side of the asteroid. He was terrified for his life. His gun had not worked on Stephie! Without his gun, with which he had killed thousands of dark chao, a handful of turrets, a Skulblakian warship, and the evil Emperor Ozimbus himself, he felt very useless. He looked at the engraving on his gun. It said, 'Never give up without a fight.' Nikki didn't feel the slightest bit encouraged. How could he never give up if his weapons didn't even work? His ego couldn't take the humiliation. So Nikki sat there and drew in the dirt with the tip of a broadsword while Fang and Scamper engaged with Stephie in the empty void of space some distance above and behind him.

Ailey approached Nikki and broke him out of his selfish thoughts. "Hey. Are you upset about Rupie and Cassius?"

Nikki looked up and, wanting Ailey to have pity on him, replied "Yes, I am. Very sad."

"I am too," Ailey sniffled. "Life won't be the same without Rupie."

Nikki looked Ailey straight in the eyes and didn't say a word.

Ailey tilted her head. "…What?"

"Ailey," Nikki said, taking a deep breath. "I love you."

Ailey gasped, taking a few steps back. "W-what!? Nikki!?"

Nikki stood up and nodded with a determined expression. "I've loved you ever since I first set eyes on you in the Emerald Hill Island airport. I never said anything because Skulblakia happened and we were fighting dark chao all the time… and even though we're still fighting right now, this is the first fight we may not escape from alive. So I'm telling you now. Ailey. The rest of my life will be hideous if it's not spent with you."

Ailey was shocked for a few seconds. Then she screamed with joy and jumped up and down. "That's exactly how I feel about you! Ever since I saw you in the airport I knew you were the one, so I convinced Rupie to come with me and stalk you until we found an opportunity to approach you!"

"Wow! You're amazing!" Nikki exclaimed, nearly out of breath.

"So are you," Ailey replied quietly. Then she looked up at the battle with Stephie raging out in space. After thinking for a bit, she looked at Nikki with a desperate expression. "Quick, there's not much time. Mate with me."

Nikki's jaw dropped.

"I'm serious," Ailey sat down on the ground. A ring of flowers instantly grew all around her.

Nikki hesitated for a few seconds, trying to internalize what was happening. It seemed too good to be true. But then again, he was Nikki the Chao, the Chosen One. It was harder to believe that female chao from all around weren't asking to mate with him twenty-four seven, three-sixty-five. They'd probably take a break on Leap Year days, but the point was made. Nikki shook himself out of his daydreams and approached Ailey to kiss her.

Just then, in the battle above, Stephie REER'd in frustration at Scamper and Fang, who were annoying her.

"DIIIIEEEEEEE!" Stephie shouted as she tore off her veil and disintegrated it with fire.

Fang and Scamper looked at her face and gasped. Unable to tear their eyes away from the horrible sight, they screamed loudly before they exploded like sparkly green fireworks.

As Nikki was a second away from the kiss, Ailey looked up at the sound of Scamper and Fang's screaming and saw Stephie's face. Without further ado, she too screamed loud enough to send Nikki staggering backwards, and then her head exploded. Her body was perfectly intact within the ring of flowers.

Nikki just stared. Ailey, the love of his life was dead. Just like that. They didn't even get to mate. He became very furious.

"REEEEEEEEERRR!" Stephie roared in triumph as she twirled around and struck poses. She gracefully began floating down towards the asteroid battlefield, in all her unveiled glory, to finish off her enemies.

By now Nikki knew better than to look at her face, so as much as it wounded his ego, he got up and ran for his life.

Stephie saw Nikki running and floated after him. "Run run, little chao! I will chew you up and spit you out like a toothpick! Heeeheeheeeerrrr!"

She began forming black fireballs and throwing them at Nikki as he ran. Nikki ran as fast as he could, dashing back and forth to avoid the fireballs while also trying not to trip. Then suddenly, Nimbus dashed out from behind a rock, wielding his trusty knapsack, walking stick, and canteen. Using his canteen to shield his face from Stephie's, he got between Nikki and a fireball that was about to hit him and used his walking stick to send it hurtling back at Stephie. The fireball didn't hurt Stephie, but it made her angry and distracted her.

"Nikki, it looks like it's just you and me!" Nimbus said, looking at him and sparkling.

"It's over, we can't even hurt that beast," Nikki muttered.

"Wrong about the former, right about the latter," Nimbus declared. "We only have one chance at beating Stephie, but we have to work together."

"How?" Nikki asked in disbelief. "Not even mystical chaos chao powers could kill her!"

"We can't kill her, but we can send her away," Nimbus said, smiling.

"Where to?" Nikki's interest was piqued.

Nimbus sparkled. "The Faraway Forest."

Nikki's eyes widened. "…How are we going to do that?"

Nimbus pointed up at the empty void of space. "See that over there? That thing that looks like a black hole?"

Nikki shook his head to indicate he didn't.

"Exactly," Nimbus replied. "It's not visible because it's black, like the rest of space. I hiked up there while you were all fighting and discovered that it's actually a wormhole to the Faraway Forest. If we get Stephie trapped in there, we'll be done with her forever!"

Nikki was in awe. He knew that any chao who was sent to the Faraway Forest could never return. And, as hideous and evil as Stephie was, she was still just a chao. He looked at Nimbus and nodded. "That might just work!"

"REEEEEEEERR!" Stephie roared to interrupt their conversation. She banged her fists together and parted them, igniting her fists with sparkling dark lightning, and then sent continuous tendrils of lightning at both Nimbus and Nikki!

Nimbus held up his walking stick and absorbed the lightning, making sure not to look at Stephie's face, but he was struggling. "Nikki, help! I can't do it alone!"

Nikki promptly put on his knapsack and wielded his canteen and walking stick. He stood next to Nimbus and helped him absorb Stephie's lightning attack.

Stephie eventually stopped shooting lightning. She floated higher up into the air, flipped into a sitting position, and tried to ground-pound Nikki and Nimbus into oblivion. They jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the attack.

"We're going to have to hike, Nikki!" Nimbus announced.

"I've never hiked across the sea, not to mention _space_!" Nikki shouted in disbelief.

"We have to try! It's our only hope!"

And with that, Nimbus started hiking across empty space towards the wormhole that led to the Faraway Forest. Nikki closed his eyes tight and made the leap of faith… and stayed in the air. He opened his eyes and, to his amazement, he was hiking across space!

"Yes!" Nikki yelled. "This is so awesome! I'm hiking across space! Haha!"

"Don't get too excited!" Nimbus warned.

"RRRRRRRRRRR," Stephie growled. She got up off the ground where her hind quarters had created an enormous crater and began flying after the hiking heroes.

"Faster, faster!" Nimbus yelled. "Hike like you've never hiked before, and don't look back!"

"I've never hiked before at all, ever!" Nikki yelled. "And only a nincompoop would look back at that monstrosity!"

Nikki eventually caught up to Nimbus, and they hiked side by side across space. It truly was a real adventure. Stephie flew after them, REER'ing and throwing fireballs and lightning. The hiking chao used their canteens to see behind them, and their walking sticks to divert Stephie's attacks. Soon, they had finally reached the wormhole to the Faraway Forest. They stopped in front of it and turned to face Stephie, though they made sure not to look right at her face.

"REEEEEEEERRRR!" Stephie angrily approached them. Her entire body was covered in dark energy as she flew.

"Steady…" Nimbus said, waiting for Stephie to come closer.

Nikki's heart was pounding so fast he thought it was about to jump out. He knew he could very well end up in the Faraway Forest just as easily as Stephie. Their timing had to be perfect.

Stephie was very close now. She drew her dark-energy-charged fist back for a mighty punch and screamed louder than she ever had before.

"…NOW!" Nimbus yelled, dashing out of Stephie's path and away from the wormhole. Nikki quickly did the same. Before Stephie could stop herself, she charged straight into the wormhole and disappeared. The powers she possessed lit up the wormhole with dark lightning, causing it to convulse and implode on itself, disappearing completely. And with that, Stephie was gone.

Nikki and Nimbus cheered as the world around them blurred beyond recognition, and they found themselves in the central plaza of Diamond City once again. The sky was sunny and clear, and birds chirped happily in the nearby trees. As the victorious chao heroes cheered, other chao of all types who had hidden from Stephie slowly emerged from their hiding spots. Little by little, they too started cheering. Nikki paused to look around at the chao that were cheering for him and smiled smugly. He, Nikki the Chao, had defeated the evil ZXY007, otherwise known as Stephie, and saved the chao nations from utter catastrophe. He pulled out his handgun and looked at the inscription on the hilt. 'Never give up without a fight.' Nikki felt very encouraged by it now that Stephie was defeated and he was a hero once again. It was a moment he knew he would cherish forever. Knowing that, he decided he had to make the best of the moment while it lasted. He pointed his gun at Nimbus and shot him in the head, killing him in one blow. The other chao gasped and stared in shock at what had just occurred. There was so much silence that they could have heard a pin drop.

Nikki looked around at the chao for a moment, and then cleared his throat. "So, who wants ice cream?"

The chao were silent for two seconds more before they erupted with cheering even louder and happier than it had been when they returned from the battle. In the ensuing hours, the chao ate more ice cream than they ever had in their whole lives. It truly was a celebration they'd never forget.

Several days later, everyone cheered as Nikki boarded an NCPA star-fighter. The fighter had been painted blue and green to celebrate Nikki's neutral normal type heritage, and it had love notes from all of Nikki's most avid fans scribbled on various places.

This was the last time Nikki would see the city of Neutropolis. Not that it mattered to him; it was pretty ugly since the tidal wave obliterated it. Now that the world was safe, all evil had been defeated, and all the riches of Chao World had been voluntarily laid at his feet, Nikki decided that he would fulfill his dream of flying away into empty space, never to be seen again.

Numerous chao came and put as much of Nikki's possessions as could fit into Nikki's star-fighter. The possessions included lots of money, medallions, trophies, chao fruits, flower garlands, packs of beer, and notes of admiration from his diehard fans, because the star-fighter's hull wasn't big enough for all of the love notes. After the fighter was filled to the brim with stuff, Nikki closed the cockpit and turned the fighter on.

"Bye Nikki!" The chao below waved. "Have a safe trip! Have fun! Make friends! Don't talk to strangers! Come back soon! Call me!"

_They'll figure out on their own that I don't plan on coming back,_ Nikki thought without remorse. He had gotten everything he could possibly want from the citizens of the chao nations, so there was no reason for him to stay. He had no real friends left, only subjects and fan-girls. No one would miss him in the deep way that really mattered. The world no longer desperately needed Nikki the Chao.

With that, the fighter took off, and Nikki promptly activated hyperdrive to send the fighter hurtling straight into the field of stars he loved so much. He exited hyperdrive just as he was passing by the moon. Nikki tried to take one last look at the planet he called his home, but he couldn't see out the rear mirror because his cockpit was so full of his material possessions.

_Well, this is goodbye_, Nikki thought as he imagined he could still see the sapphire-blue sphere that was Mobius beyond all his useless stuff.

Nikki skirted the moon and flew off into the black void of space. He loved seeing all the stars in the galaxy, he loved how there was no day and night, and he loved how fresh the sun, moon, and planets looked without Mobius' polluted atmosphere to block out their beauty.

Nikki's selfish thoughts were interrupted when a missile struck his fighter and sent it straight to hell.

Wacky laughed.


End file.
